Catalogue raisonné

A catalogue raisonné is a comprehensive, annotated listing of all the known artworks by an artist either in a particular medium or all media. The works are described in such a way that they may be reliably identified by third parties.

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

It can take many years to complete a catalogue raisonné and large teams of researchers are sometimes employed on the task. For example, it was reported in 2013 that the Dedalus Foundation (established by the abstract-expressionist painter Robert Motherwell) took 11 years to complete the three-volume catalogue raisonné of Motherwell’s work which was published by Yale University Press in 2012, with approximately 25 people contributing to the project.

Early examples consisted of two distinct parts, a biography and the catalogue itself. Their modern counterpart is the critical catalogue which may contain personal views of the author.

The term catalogue raisonné is French, meaning "reasoned catalogue" (i.e., containing arguments for the information given, such as attributions.) but is part of the technical terminology of the English-speaking art world. The spelling is never Americanized to "catalog", even in the United States. The French pluralization "catalogues raisonnés" is used.

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

In rare cases "catalogue raisonné" does not refer to art or an artist but to an institutional collection, for example:

Most artists work in various media, e.g. oils, water colors, sculpture. In some cases a catalogue raisonné is restricted to works by an artist in only one medium, for example:

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

The first catalogue raisonné of an artist's juvenilia, and the first unauthorized catalogue raisonné of the works of a living artist:

Examples of online catalogues raisonnés include:

Catalogues raisonnés are often compiled well after the artist's death. In the case of Rembrandt, art historians over the years have attempted to catalog his works by travelling around to various art collections, while documenting Rembrandt paintings in estate inventories. Today the authoritative Catalogue raisonné of Rembrandt paintings is embodied in the Rembrandt Research Project, an ongoing study of his work using a variety of forensic techniques. Besides paintings, 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:

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