A catalogue rainsonne is a published
compilation of all the works by an artist or a group of artists, or can be
narrowly focused on art created in a particular medium.[i] These
can take years to complete, even with extensive teams working on them. The
great painter Rembrandt, for example, has been the subject of many catalogues
raisonnes, beginning with Edme-Francois Gersaintin 1751, and being altered at
least until White and Boon’s 1969 compilation.[ii] The
scholars or artists compiling these C.R.’s are considered to be the absolute
authorities on the artist’s technique and signature characteristics, and thus
their word is often taken as absolute regarding the authenticity of artwork.
Why is having such a learned authority a bad thing? Well largely it isn’t.
These individuals sometimes spend years and years of their lives traveling to complete
their catalogue raisonne, and are indeed -probably the most well-informed
professionals. However, their determinations regarding authenticity can cause
the market value of an item to experience astonishing shifts. In 2006, a
painting was purchased on Ebay by a writer for about £3,000 that was determined
eight years later to be an authentic Edouard Vuillard. The market value of the
item then skyrocketed to £250,000 once it was determined to be authentic – and thus
included in a C.R.[iii]
The
debate about whether or not compilers should be responsible for determining the
authenticity of artists’ works sparked a seminar in 2012 held at Christies in New
York, held by the relatively new body called the Catalogue Raisonne Scholars
Association (CRSA).[iv]
This body was founded in 1994, and has members representing every profession
from collectors and art dealers to software designers. Two years before the
seminar, in April of 2010, the CRSA released their Guidelines for Issuing
Scholarly Opinions about Authenticity. Listed within was a roadmap which
compilers were to follow absolutely before issuing their recommendation on
authenticity.[v]
The Wildenstein Institute, in their 2014 policy concerning the authentication
of artwork, wrote that, “Under no circumstance is a recommendation to be
considered as a certificate of authenticity or appraisal…”[vi]
Patrons
who wish to access a particular C.R. have a few options. For printed copies,
they can check with their local library, often in the Fine Arts or Architecture
Departments. The International Foundation for Art Research had created a
Catalogue Raisonne Database, in which a patron can search for a particular
artist to determine if they have their own C.R., or if they are part of a
group, assuming they have one at all.[vii] This
option is growing in popularity, due to the advantages of digital copies. The
most obvious advantage is wider accessibility to users, and the prevention of
their travel to use the catalogue raisonne. Users are predominantly art
collectors and dealers, looking to see if their painting is indeed an original,
or seeking information contained in the provenance or history of the paintings.
Scholars, too, researching perhaps a particular facet of an artist’s work would
make use of the essays or descriptions of paintings which are part of the C.R.
Bibliography
Catalogues Raisonnes Scholars
Association, 2015, accessed October 1, 2015.
Huffington Post UK, Painting
Bought for £3000 on Ebay Actually Worth a Fortune, January 20, 2014,
Accessed October 4, 2015.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/01/20/ebay-painting-fortune_n_4630252.html
International Foundation for Art
Research, 1998-2015
Rembrandt Research Project
Foundation, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings IV, 2005.
Wildenstein Institute – A Center for
Research in Art History, 2015, accessed September 29, 2015.
[i] http://www.catalogueraisonne.org/
[ii] A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings
IV: The Self-Portraits (Rembrandt Research Project Foundation), Ernst van de
Wetering, 2005
[iv] http://www.catalogueraisonne.org/programs/programs.html
[v] http://www.catalogueraisonne.org/guidelines/guidelines.html
[vi] http://www.wildenstein-institute.fr/index.html
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