What is a catalogue raisonné?

A catalogue raisonné is a comprehensive, critical account of an artist’s oeuvre, which lists either all or a subset of the known artworks by an artist. These publications exist either in printed or digital formats and are usually produced by a recognized authority on the artist, such as a renowned scholar, a group of scholars, or an artist’s foundation. It is often necessary to narrow down the subject of a catalogue raisonné to a particular medium, due to the vast scope of an artist’s oeuvre. Depending on the scale of the artist’s body of work and the size of the research team, this information can take several years or even decades to compile.

A catalogue raisonné presents a description of each artwork, listing basic cataloguing details that include title, dimensions, technique, date of execution, as well as any signatures and other inscriptions on the recto and verso of the work. Catalogue raisonné entries are accompanied by images, when available, and are usually presented in chronological order.  

Other critical elements of a catalogue raisonné include the provenance, exhibition history, and selective bibliography for each artwork. The provenance details the history of ownership for an artwork and is often presented as a list of all known owners or dealers that have been involved in transactions of the work. If an owner is not a public entity or information surrounding ownership is not publicly available, the owner will be listed as a private collection and will remain anonymous. As a seamless chain of ownership is often impossible to reconstruct, gaps in the provenance of an artwork are common. Similarly, the exhibition history and bibliography for each work will not necessarily be comprehensive and will often focus upon the most significant exhibitions and publications. A catalogue raisonné may also include scholarly analysis; a chronology of the artist’s life and career; and a comprehensive bibliography relating to the artist’s work.

A catalogue raisonné allows an artist’s oeuvre to be considered in its entirety, presenting each work and its accompanying information with equal importance. Such scholarship enables the reader to discover new means by which to approach their understanding of an artist and brings into consideration works of art that may have hitherto been overlooked. Examples of artists whose oeuvres have been the subject of a printed catalogue raisonné include:

• Hintze, Bertel: Albert Edelfelt 1–3, 1942–44

Bertel Hintze's three-volume monograph on Albert Edelfelt was published between 1942 and 1944. The final volume of this publication is a catalogue raisonné, which can be viewed online at the Svenska litteratursällskapet's (the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland’s website)

• Zervos, Christian: Pablo Picasso by Christian Zervos, 1932–78

Over more than forty years, Christian Zervos compiled a monumental thirty-three volume catalogue of Picasso’s paintings and paper-based works. The catalogue includes the details of more than sixteen thousand works and was published between 1932 and 1978. For decades, Zervos’s catalogue has been a vital tool in identifying and verifying the authenticity of Picasso's works.

• Woll, Gerd: Edvard Munch: Complete Paintings, 2009

Gerd Woll assembled a comprehensive catalogue of Munch’s graphic works, published in 2001. Between 2003 and 2008, Woll went on to manage the preparation of the catalogue raisonné of Munch’s paintings, coordinated by the Munch Museum, Oslo. Edvard Munch: Complete Paintings was published in four volumes in 2009. This catalogue is remarkable in its scope and made Munch’s oeuvre accessible to a new international audience and community of scholars.

• Bambach, Carmen: Leonardo da Vinci: Rediscovered, 2019

Carmen Bambach’s four-volume catalogue raisonné, published in 2019, demonstrated how a well-made catalogue can offer new perspectives on an artist who has been studied for centuries.

• Bokförlaget Stolpe: Hilma af Klint: The Complete Catalogue Raisonné, 2021–2022

The Hilma af Klint exhibition at the Guggenheim in New York in 2018 became the most visited exhibition in the history of the museum. The Hilma af Klint Catalogue Raisonné, published by Bokförlaget Stolpe, answers the growing international interest. The seven-volume catalogue raisonné consists of nearly 1,600 works. The first three volumes of the catalogue raisonné were published in 2021, and the four remaining volumes will be published in 2022. Hilma af Klint’s catalogue raisonné is one of the first catalogues raisonnés made of a Swedish artist.

Online Digital Catalogue Raisonnés

Digital catalogue raisonnés are dynamic databanks that contain a vast amount of information. Digitalization enables new and more efficient ways for searching, processing, and compiling data. In addition to descriptive information, expography, and bibliography, a large amounts of other digitized material can be attached to the works: letters, sale documents, exhibition catalogues, and photographs. For example, the catalogue may include essays or may provide links to online databases and publications with additional information. Digitalization allows a catalogue raisonné to be continually edited and updated. This process has brought catalogue raisonné research into a new era and created a multidimensional resource for scholars.

Examples of visual artists whose oeuvres have been the subject of a digital catalogue raisonné:

The Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings of Paul Cézanne

The editors of Paul Cézanne’s online catalogue raisonné are Walter Feilchenfeldt, David Nash, and Jayne Warman. The developer of the digital cataloging platform is panOpticon. The catalogue is based upon four catalogue raisonnés of Cezanne’s works: Paul Rosenberg and Lionello Venturi’s Cézanne: Son Art, Son Oeuvre (1936); Adrien Chappuis’s catalogue raisonné of Cezanne’s drawings (1973); and John Rewald’s publications, Paul Cézanne: The Watercolors (1983) and The Paintings of Paul Cézanne (1996). 

Gauguin: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings 1891–1903

Gauguin's digital catalogue raisonné is the continuation of a scholarly project commenced by Daniel Wildenstein. The first two volumes of this catalogue raisonné were published by the Wildenstein Institute in 2002. Following the death of Daniel Wildenstein, the catalogue raisonné project continued under the leadership of Richard R. Brettell and Sylvie Crussard. The Wildenstein Plattner Institute took up the mantle as publisher, editor, and administrator of the catalogue in 2017. The digital publication of Gauguin: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings 1891–1903 was launched online in spring 2021. The compilation and development of this catalogue is ongoing.