Photography: A Research Guide: Catalogues Raisonnés

A number of scholarly associations have now created databases of artwork to replace traditional printed catalogues raisonnés.

Here are a few sources that have collected those sites:

• Catalogue Raisonné Scholars' Association
• International Arts Online Catalogues Raisonnés
• Born-digital catalogues raisonnés (scholarly compilations of an artist's work)

And here is a great example of an online catalogue raisonné of an individual artist's work:

• The William Henry Fox Talbot online catalogue raisonné

A catalogue raisonné, broadly speaking, is a reference work that provides as comprehensive and detailed a list as possible of an artist’s oeuvre. Sometimes the catalog of works is broken down by format or medium, or broken down into chronological sequences.

Oxford Art Online definition: catalogue raisonné

New York Public Library definition:What is a Catalogue Raisonné?

Finding catalogues raisonnés in general:

• A.C.I. : art catalogue index : catalogues raisonnés & critical catalogues of artists 1780-2008 (Fine Arts Ref N6447 .A25 2009)
• The International Foundation for Art Research maintains a database of catalogues raisonnés.
• The Print Council Index to Oeuvre-Catalogues of Prints by European and American Artists

The Fine Arts Library's collection of catalogues raisonnés is distributed; many of them held in the reference collection, while others are in the circulating collection (held either at Fine Arts or the Annex).

Finding catalogues raisonnés in the catalog:
The term, catalogues raisonnés, is usually used in the subject cataloging for art monographs. Here's an example of a search (using the advanced search function):

1. Enter the phrase "catalogues raisonnes" (without the quotation marks) and use the pull-down menus to select "phrase" in "subject"
2. On the next line, enter the artist's name, e.g. Rubens and use the pull-down menu to select in "subject"

It is sometimes helpful to broaden the search to also include the terms, catalogs and catalogues (using the "any" query to search for either term)--be aware that this search will also look for exhibition catalogs.