Given that catalogues raisonnés are so central to provenance and authentication research, they have always formed an important part of IFAR's activities. As early as 1986, we organized a symposium, "The Catalogue Raisonné—The Critical Issues." Our 2001 conference, Catalogues Raisonnés and the Authentication Process, featured 24 speakers and included extensive resource materials. Below are some of the publications, programs and resource materials we have devoted to this subject.
Proceedings of an IFAR Conference on "Catalogues Raisonnés and the Authentication Process: Where the Ivory Tower Meets the Marketplace,"
Samuel Sachs II, "Right or Wrong, Real or Fake: Who Cares?"
Nancy Mowll Mathews (moderator), "Introduction."
Neil Printz, "Methods of Research: Case Studies from the Warhol Catalogue Raisonné."
Sarah Faunce, "Establishing Reliable Evidence."
Vivian Endicott Barnett, "The Kandinsky Catalogue Raisonné."
Joyce Hill Stoner, "Partnerships Between Conservators and Art Historians in the Creation of Catalogues Raisonnés."
Grace H. Glueck (moderator), "Introduction."
Peter C. Sutton, "Judging the Experts."
John L. Tancock, "The View from the Auction House."
Van Kirk Reeves, "Droit Moral and Authentication of Works in France."
Getting Published - At What Cost?
Elaine Stainton and Paul Anbinder, "The Publisher's Viewpoint."
Theodore H. Feder, "The Role of the Artists Rights Society (ARS)."
Theodore N. Kaplan (moderator), "Introduction."
Steven Mark Levy, "Defamation, Disparagement and Malpractice."
Ronald D. Spencer, "Are Opinions Dangerous Things to Give? Suits Against the Pollock-Krasner Authentication Board."
Peter R. Stern, "Insulating Yourself from Liability."
Ellen Hoener Ross, "Insurance for Art Scholars and Writers."
Jack Cowart (moderator), "Sponsorship and the Inevitability of Conflicts."
Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., "A Museum Curator's Perspective. "
Barbara Buhler Lynes, "The Georgia O'Keeffe Catalogue Raisonné and the CAA's Code of Ethics for Art Historians."
Sharon Flescher, "IFAR's Catalogue Raisonné Survey."
Gail Levin, "A Scholar's Perspective: The Edward Hopper Catalogue Raisonné. "Michael Findlay, "The Needs of the Marketplace."
Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., "Conference Summation."
Includes: Articles relating to catalogues raisonnés; legal articles relating to droit moral, authentication, and liability of experts; and sample catalogue raisonn$eacute; data sheets and waiver forms.
Joachim Pissarro, "Camille Pissarro Through the Forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné." IFAR Journal, Vol. 6, nos. 1/2, 2003.
Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, "Pissarro and Durand-Ruel." IFAR Journal, Vol. 6, Nos. 1/2, 2003.
Barbara Buhler Lynes, "Solving Puzzles, Discovering O'Keeffe: The Georgia O'Keeffe Catalogue Raisonné," (Part I). IFAR Journal, Vol. 5, no. 2, 2002.
Judith Walsh, "Solving Puzzles, Discovering O'Keeffe: The Georgia O'Keeffe Catalogue Raisonné," (Part II). IFAR Journal, Vol. 5, no. 2, 2002.
Ernst van de Wetering, "Thirty Years of the Rembrandt Research Project: The Tension Between Science and Connoisseurship in Authenticating Art." IFAR Journal, Vol. 4, no. 2, 2001.
Peter T. Nesbett, "An IFAR Evening: The Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project." IFAR Journal, Vol. 2, no. 2, Spring 1999.
"Books: Gauguin: A Savage in the Making. Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings (1873-1888)". Review in IFAR Journal, vol.6, No. 3, 2003.
"Books: Recent Catalogues Raisonnés." IFAR Journal, Vol. 1, no. 3, Autumn 1998.
"Catalogues Raisonnés and the Authentication Process: Where the Ivory Tower Meets the Marketplace," An IFAR Conference. December 14-15, 2001, New York.
"The Growing Problem of Fakes and Forgeries in American Art," An IFAR Evening with Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Curator of American Art, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University. Thursday, November 30, 2006.
"Challenges and Discoveries in the Art of Camille Pissarro: The New Catalogue Raisonné," An IFAR Evening with Joachim Pissarro and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Co-Authors, Camille Pissarro Catalogue Raisonné. May 27, 2003.
"Solving Puzzles, Discovering O'Keeffe: The Georgia O'Keeffe Catalogue Raisonné," An IFAR Evening with Barbara Buhler Lynes, Author, Georgia O'Keeffe Catalogue Raisonné; Curator, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and Judith Walsh, Senior Paper Conservator, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. April 24, 2002 .
"Thirty Years of the Rembrandt Research Project," An IFAR Evening with Ernst van de Wetering, Chairman of the Rembrandt Research Project. February 2001.
"The Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project," An IFAR Evening with Peter T. Nesbett.
For catalogues raisonnés on prints and printmakers, please consult the Print Council of America's comprehensive Index to Print Catalogues Raisonné at: www.printcouncil.org/search.html. In addition, many listings on printmakers within the inventories published by the Bibliothàque Nationale, Paris, are virtually the equivalent of catalogues raisonnés. See, for example, Roger-Armand Weigert and Maxime Préaud, Inventaire du fonds français, graveurs du XVIIe siècle and Jean Laran et al., Inventaire du fonds français après 1800 (Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, 15 vols., 1930-ongoing). Individual volumes within the Illustrated Bartsch series (Abaris Books, 96 vols. New York and Norwalk, CT., ongoing) should also be consulted for prints; those volumes published to date for individual artists or groups of artists are not currently listed in the IFAR database. As of 2007, some 50,000 images fromthe Illustrated Bartsch are also available electronically on ARTstor (www.artstor.org), a subscriber-based service.
For general information about catalogues raisonnés, please visit the website of the Catalogue Raisonné Scholars Association: www.catalogueraisonne.org.
Several major art historical compilations are also worth mentioning. Hostede de Groot, A Catalogue of the Works of the most eminent Dutch painters of the Seventeenth Century based on the Work of John Smith (8 vols., London, 1908-27), is an important corpus describing the oeuvres of individual Dutch artists. Studies by Bernard Berenson and Lionello Venturi also represent important historical efforts to reconstruct the oeuvres of Italian artists.
The catalogues of the holdings of large national museums and libraries - for example, the British Museum, the Louvre and the Uffizi - are also invaluable resources, especially for researching the prints and drawings of artists whose works were collected by monarchs or other wealthy patrons in earlier periods.