Annelies van Loon is a paintings research scientist both at the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam) and the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis (The Hague). She received a master's degree in chemistry, a post-doctoral diploma in the conservation of easel paintings from the Limburg Conservation Institute (SRAL) and a PhD in chemistry on the topic of "Color changes and chemical reactivity in seventeenth-century oil paintings." She has specialized in materials analysis and ageing and deterioration processes of Old Master Paintings. Van Loon has published on metal soap formation and other phenomena related to the degradation of oil paint.