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Art Historical Photo Archives


Art historical photo archives (or photoarchives) are collections of reproductions of works of art that document paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, architecture and sometimes installation photos. They are essential resource tools for the study of art history. Image collections deepen understanding of specific objects of art and the careers of individual artists as they also provide the means for a comparative approach to the study of artists’ works, national schools and period styles. The documentation that accompanies the images can also reveal patterns of art collecting, art market fluctuations and the changeable nature of public opinion. Photo archives build their collections and gather documentation for the works of art they record through purchases, gifts and photography campaigns. Information about ownership, condition, attribution, and subject identification is recorded at the time of acquisition and is frequently updated.

The founders of important art historical photo archives believed that a deep and broad visual knowledge was necessary for the study of art history. These pioneers, including Richard Hamann, Aby Warburg, Sir Robert Witt, William Martin Conway, Bernard Berenson, Cornelis Hofstede de Groot and Helen Clay Frick, were the first to realize the potential of photography as a means to provide researchers with materials that strengthen the documentation and interpretation of works of art. The photo archives they founded in the first half of the 20th century, now part of FotoMarburg, the Warburg Institute, the Witt Library, Villa I Tatti, the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, and the Frick Art Reference Library Photoarchive, are still used by countless researchers in the first half of the 21st century.


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