catalogue raisonné

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The typical catalogue raisonné is a monograph giving a comprehensive catalogue of artworks by an artist.

The essential elements of a catalogue raisonné are that:
a. it purports to be an exhaustive list of works
b. for a defined subject matter
c. describing the works in a way so that they may be reliably identified by third parties.

Purports to be an Exhaustive List

The term "catalogue raisonné" has been given a loose interpretation in the past but it has always meant a complete listing.

The Compact Oxford English Dictionary defines "catalogue" as

• 1. a list, register or complete enumeration (emphasis added),
• 2. now usually distinguished from a mere list (emphasis added) or enumeration by systematic or methodical arrangement…..

The author of a catalogue raisonné presumes to have catalogued a complete list and then publishes the catalogue. The difficulty is, in knowing when an author can ever be confident that the list is complete i.e. the concern that an undiscovered work remains to be found. In reality it is typical for works to show up after the publication of the catalogue resulting in new editions or completely new compilations by other authors. In some cases research shows that some works have been wrongly attributed to the artist in earlier catalogues.

Rembrandt, an example of catalogues being modified

There are about 20 catalogues purporting to list Rembrandt’s complete etchings; each one building on the other, in some cases adding etchings, in others removing etchings and in others adding different states of the etchings. The important catalogues being:

• 1751; The first significant catalogue was by the Paris art auctioneer, Edme-François Gersaint.

• 1797; The Vienna curator, Adam Bartsch, brought out a new edition that became the classic reference BUT 89 of the 375 Bartsch entries are no longer believed to be prints by Rembrandt.

• 1895 + 1922; Woldemar von Seidlitz, Die Radierungen Rembrandts: Mit Einem Kritischern Verzeichnis Und Abbildung Samtlicher Radierungen; publisher: Leipzig: E. A. Seemann Verlag, 1922, Leipzig - Seidlitz added 3 prints not in Bartsch but now believed to be by Rembrandt.

• 1912 + 1923; Hind, Arthur Mayger, A Catalogue of Rembrandt's Etchings; chronologically arranged and completely illustrated, 2 vols, London, Methuen & Co Ltd.

• 1969; White, Christopher; Boon, Karel G, Rembrandt's Etchings: An Illustrated Critical Catalogue, 2 vols, Amsterdam, Van Gendt & Co, added more illustrations of the different states but continued to use the Bartsch numbering system where applicable.

Defined Subject Matter

The subject matter covered by a catalogue raisonné is always defined with the parameters set by the author. The parameters are often just two:
1. all the works of
2. one artist.

However there are many variations, both broader and narrower than "all the works" or "one artist". The parameters could be restricted to one type of art work by one artist or it could be widened to all the works by a group of artists.

One Artist?

While the typical catalogue raisonné is devoted to the works of one artist, the author could widen the parameters to include a group of artists.

An example of all the works of a group of artists is:

A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters by John Smith; published by Smith & Son, London in 9 volumes 1829-1842 also seen in an Elibron Classics facsimile reprint published by Adamant Media Corporation (February 9, 2001) of the 1836 edition.
NOTE: this example is problematic as one parameter is the "most eminent" painters in the opinion of John Smith. It is unlikely that such a nebulous subject would be advanced in modern times.

But for a modern example of multiple artists that is nearly as vague, see a catalogue of the principal artists of The Grosvenor School of Modern Art from the 1920's and 30's.
Linocuts of the Machine Age: Claude Flight and the Grosvenor School; by Stephen Coppel, Publisher: Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1995. This book purports to be a complete listing (over 380) of the linocuts done by seven of the artists of the Grosvenor School.

In rare cases "catalogue raisonné" is not even used to refer to art or an artist but is used to catalogue an institutional collection eg in what purports to be a definitive book on the Jewish Museum's Hanukkah Lamp collection see: Braunstein, Susan L, Five Centuries of Hanukkah Lamps From the Jewish Museum: A Catalogue Raisonné, Publisher: The Jewish Museum (New York) under the auspices of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and Yale University Press New Haven, New York; 2004

Medium

Most artists work in various mediums i.e. oils, water colors, sculpture, etc. In some cases the author of the catalogue raisonné restricts the parameter to just one medium by the artist.

Picasso - an example of one artist and some of his different mediums, each medium with its own catalogue raisonné:

Picasso's illustrated books

• Goeppert, Sebastian, Herma Corinna Goeppert-Frank, Patrick Cramer. Pablo Picasso. The Illustrated Books: Catalogue raisonné. Publisher: Patrick Cramer. Geneva. 1983

Picasso's engravings and monotypes for different time periods

• Geiser, Bernhard, Alfred Scheidegger. Picasso peintre-graveur, II: catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre gravé et des monotypes 1932-1934 (Bern: Kornfeld und Klipstein, 1968).

• Baer, Brigitte. Picasso, peintre-graveur, III-VII and addendum, catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre gravé et des monotypes, 1935-1972. (Berne: Editions Kornfeld, 1933-1996).

Picasso's sculptures

• Spies, Werner. Picasso; The Sculptures - With Catalogue Raisonné; Publisher: Hatje Cantz 2000

Time Periods

Sometimes only a certain period of the artist's life is covered as set out below for Jim Dine.

Combinations

For an example where the parameters are limited to:
- one medium (prints),
- for different time periods,
- for one artist (Jim Dine) see:

• Jim Dine Prints: 1970-1977; Williamstown, MA. Williams College. Catalog by Thomas Krens with additional text by Riva Castleman; Publisher: Williams College / Harper & Row 1977

• Jim Dine Prints: 1977-1985; A Catalogue Raisonné; Ellen G. D'Oench; Jean E. Feinberg; Publisher: Harper & Row Publishers, New York, 1986

• Jim Dine Prints: 1985-2000; A Catalogue Raisonné; Carpenter, Elizabeth; Ruzicka, Joseph; Campbell, Richard; Publisher: The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2002

Describing the Works So They May be Identified

this heading will be fleshed out shortly

As recently as the early part of the 20th century, respectable art publications would use the phrase and apply it to a comprehensive listing of an artist’s work, give dimensions, medium and perhaps a brief discussion on the work. Such a listing would typically give a description of the image but no image. As the cost of reproduction declined, images were included more often.

Expected Contents of a Catalogue Raisonné

Scholarship has become more exacting since the late 1800’s and more information is being included. In more recent usage a catalogue raisonné ideally provides the following for every work discussed:

• Title
• Images
• Medium ie oil, watercolor, etching, etc
• Dimensions - for works on paper the dimensions may include image size, plate size where applicable, and paper size.
• For prints, a description of the various states (i.e. each time the artist modified the matrix from which the print was made) and a description of each edition of the various states.
• A discussion of related works (where applicable) by the same or other artists and in some cases a commentary by a curator as to what the artist is exploring in the work.
• Provenance (the names of former owners, dealers who were involved in the sale of the piece, and shows where the piece has been exhibited.) This may give some credibility to the authenticity of the work.
• List of the literature ("literaturverzeichnis") that discusses the work
• Condition reports. This only applies to unique items such as oils or watercolors. With multiples (e.g. prints, some cast works, etc) the condition would not be reported unless the pieces were of extreme scarcity.

In addition, the catalogue often contains:

• An introductory essay discussion of the artist's life (generally shorter than a whole monograph on the artist)
• Disputed, questionable and spurious works
• Example signatures
• Indices, listing each work:
  • By its current location (city/museum)
  • By its previous owners
  • By the scholars who have commented on it

Because artwork can be widely distributed, and some owners may not wish for high-quality images to be made available, some photographic reproductions of works may be only in black and white and/or small in size. Works since destroyed may exist only as old photographs or prints.

Grammatical & Linguistic matters

The term catalogue raisonné is French, meaning "reasoned catalogue" (i.e., containing arguments for the information given, such as attributions.)

American Spelling

Catalogue raisonné has wide usage in English and is part of the technical terminology used primarily in the art world. Accordingly, the spelling is never Americanized to "catalog", even in the United States.^{[1] [2]}

• a book search on Amazon.com conducted August 15, 2009 using the the French spelling "catalogue raisonné" resulted in 10,115 hits. The same search using the American "catalog" resulted in 2,997 hits HOWEVER it would appear that the book dealers using "catalog" misspelled the actual title of the book - in those cases where the dealer input "catalog" and included a picture of the cover, the cover showed the French spelling being used.

Plural Usage

"Catalogue raisonné" is a compound noun and is often mistakenly pluralized as "catalogue raisonnés" or "catalogues raisonnés".

As set out in The Elements of Grammar by Margaret Shertzer, when the compound is made up of a noun and a preposition, a noun and a prepositional phrase, or a noun and an adverb, the noun is usually pluralized such as is in "mothers-in-law", "commanders in chief" and "works of art".

In this case, the plural is "catalogues raisonné".

Other Language Equivalents

• Italian usage: "L'Opera completa"
  

eg "L'Opera completa di Cezanne" by Gatto, Alfonso and Sara Orienti Publisher: Milano (Milan): Rizzoli, 1979 A Catalogue raisonné of the paintings. 838 items described and illustrated.
In some cases it may be shortened to "L'Opera" eg. L'Opera Pittorica Di Edouard Manet by Venturi, Marcello Publisher: Rizzoli, Milan 1967. Catalogue raisonné. 64 pp of colour plates, 520 b&w illustrations.

• German usage: "Oeuvre-Katalog" or "Werkverzeichnis"
  

eg "Max Ernst: Oeuvre-Katalog, 1906-1963. the Complete Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture, Frottages, Collages and Graphics" by Spies, Werner, S. & G. Metken and Helmut Leppien. Publisher: Menil / Wittenborn 1975 Catalogue raisonné. Text in English, German and French. Catalogue descriptions in German with English language glossary

eg "Kurt Kocherscheidt. Werkverzeichnis: Malerei und Holzarbeiten (Catalogue Raisonné: Paintings and Wood Sculptures) 1966 – 1992"; by Morat, Franz Armin; Pub: Morat-Institut für Kunst und Kunstwissenschaft 2006

Limitations of Hard Copy

this topic will be fleshed out shortly
A catalogue raisonné is typically expensive to produce because of the sheer volume of pages and photographic reproductions required, and generally has a limited market. Thus, they usually carry a high price and are rarely reprinted.

On-Line Catalogues Raisonné

this topic will be fleshed out shortly

References

1. ^ ArtLex Art Dictionary on catalogue raisonné http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/Car.html#anchor1634878
2. ^ FAQ, placing the Catalogue Raisonné in context with other types of art catalogues http://arthistory.about.com/od/artspeak_faqs/f/catalogue.htm

Recommended books

• Art Books: A Basic Bibliography of Monographs on Artists (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities) by W. Freitag; Publisher: Routledge; Second Edition (April 1, 1997)

• Judging the Authenticity of Prints by The Masters: A Primer for Collectors by David Rudd Cycleback

External links

General links

• The Catalogue Raisonné Scholars Association
• Collector's Corner: The Catalogue Raisonne: Identifying Fine-Art Prints

Databases for Hard Copy Editions

• The International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR)
• The Print Council of America on-line database of Catalogues Raisonné for prints

On-line Projects

• Gemini G.E.L. Online Catalogue Raisonné for some of their more well known artists, in conjunction with the National Gallery of Art
• artistarchive.com, a public service site to create on-line catalogues
• A catalogue site sponsored by a commercial gallery, Childs Gallery
• Online Picasso-Project