Middelkoop has worked at the Amsterdam Museum since 1997. As Senior Curator of Paintings, Prints and Drawings he (co-)organized exhibitions such as Face Values (2002-03), The Gift (2004), Old Masters of Amsterdam (2008), Backers in Residence (2010), Van Oostsanen (2014), Portrait Gallery of the 17th Century (2014-present) and Ferdinand Bol and Govert Flinck (2017-18).

He regularly publishes on Old Masters and in 2019 obtained his PhD at the University of Amsterdam with the thesis Schutters, gildebroeders, regenten en regentessen. Het Amsterdamse corporatiestuk 1525-1850.

In his research, Middelkoop has mainly focused on the history of collections, the Dutch cityscape and portraiture. He has also been intensively involved with the work of Frans Hals. For the Frans Hals Museum, he was a member of the supervisory committee for the recent restoration of Hals’ governors group portraits and acted as one of the curators of the exhibition Rendez-Vous with Frans Hals in 2018.

Most recently, Middelkoop was guest curator of the exhibition Rembrandt and Amsterdam Portraiture 1590-1670, which was held in 2020 at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. He is currently a member of the committee supervising the restoration of Rembrandt’s Night Watch.

From 2004 to 2010, Middelkoop served as chair of the CODART program committee and then served as a board member of the Friends of CODART Foundation from 2011 to 2019.

Middelkoop will continue to work at the Amsterdam Museum for one day a week to prepare a traveling exhibition of sixteenth and seventeenth-century group portraits.

The Frans Hals Museum and the Amsterdam Museum are currently collaborating on a four-year project titled ‘Faces of North Holland’. The double appointment of Middelkoop strengthens the close collaboration and professional exchange between the two museums.

“This appointment feels like coming home to me, and not just because I grew up in Haarlem. I regard Frans Hals as my childhood sweetheart and the Frans Hals Museum as the place where it all started for me as an art historian.” said Middelkoop.

In addition to looking forward to Middelkoop’s commitment and expertise, the Frans Hals Museum will  work with guest curators in the coming years, who offer an alternate view of the museum’s collection.