This page concentrates on the many print resources in the Barber Art Library and the Research Reserve. For information about online resources see the pages on Journals, Books & ebooks, etc., in the right hand column. For help with finding specialist resources contact the Barber Art Library online or by visiting us in person. See the Barber Art Library for opening hours contact details.
A catalogue raisonné is an authoritative, comprehensive, annotated compilation of all the known works of an artist. Catalogues raisonnés are important tools for researching attribution and provenance of artworks. They are also known as
• Oeuvre
• Catalogo Ragionato
• Opera Completa
• Werkverzeichnis
• Leben und Werk
• Complete Works
• Critical Catalogue
• Life and Work
The Barber Fine Art Library has many catalogues raisonnés. They are not shelved as a single collection; they are shelved along with other books on an artist. Some are in the Barber Fine Art Library Reading Rooms, but most are in the Research Reserve.
Catalogues raisonnés are generally regarded as authoritative standard texts which can be used to determine the authenticity of specific artworks. Some may be a single volume; some may run to several volumes. The catalogue raisonné for Paul Klee is in ten volumes. Whether or not a work of art is included in a respected catalogue raisonné might affect its monetary value, sometimes considerably. If you have watched the BBC documentary series Fake or Fortune? you may have seen the team of presenters consulting the relevant catalogues raisonné to help establish the authenticity and value of the paining being examined.
Catalogues raisonnés in the Barber Fine Art Library Resourcelist
The Barber Fine Art Library has a major collection of catalogues of temporary exhibitions and gallery collections with examples dating back to the 18th century. Find out about some of them using our Show Time: Exhibitions that changed art history resourcelist.
The earliest exhibition catalogues are small pamphlets without illustrations giving only the minimum of information. The most recent ones, on the other hand, are well illustrated publications packed with up-to-date research, scholarly articles. They may even contain unique material such as interviews with artists. Although many galleries are producing online exhibition guides the printed catalogue is still a popular format. Many older catalogues have not yet been digitised.
Bear in mind that some catalogues, especially those printed before the 1960s, may not include much, information about the artists and works on show. However, they do tend to list all the works on show, and they are physical objects that can help you to imagine what it might have been like to attend a particular exhibition.
Many of the exhibition catalogues are housed in the Research Reserve (RRART) and can be requested using the request from Research Reserve button in FindIt@Bham.
The Barber Fine Art Library has a major collection of auction catalogues, also known as sales catalogues) with examples dating back to the 18th century to 2021.
See our guide to Art auctions (sales) catalogues and our Researching Art Sales Resourcelist
Shelved in Small Reading Room Ref.N40 A
‘The Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon (AKL), [Artists of the World], is the successor to the traditional Thieme-Becker and Vollmer standard reference works on art history. It has been published since 1991. It includes artists from all over the world and throughout the ages from antiquity to the present. It not only contains painters, sculptors, and graphic designers, but gives equal weight to architects, designers, photographers, calligraphers, craftsmen, and many other artistic professions. Around 1,500 artist biographies are contained in each volume. An index arranged according to country and artistic profession follows every tenth volume.’
One of the most comprehensive resources of artists' biographies.
Shelved in Small Reading Room at Ref.N40 B
Also available online as part of Oxford Art Online
More of an encyclopaedia than a dictionary, with good bibliographies
Shelved in Small Reading Room at Ref.N31 D
Also available online as part of Oxford Art Online
Shelved in Research Reserve - NE651 - NE670
Complete and extensive reproductions of German, Dutch, and Flemish prints created 1450-1700. Complete catalogues raisonnes of prints for major artists and designers. Available in the following series:
The Illustrated Bartsch (TIB) is a multi-volume encyclopedic collection of European prints including engraving, etching, woodcut, and other techniques, from around 1420 until around 1850 with commentary based on Adam von Bartsch’s Le Peintre-Graveur, published in the early nineteenth century, with updates and corrections.
Shelved in Research Reserve qNE90 B
Also available online through Artstor