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How to Research Works of Art in Museums
RH
102: Professor Davida Pines
January 28-29, 2003
Updated: Feb '05, '06, '07
Ruth Thomas, Mugar Memorial Library
rthomas@bu.edu
http://www.bu.edu/library/instruction/woa/
How to Research Works of Art
in the Fogg Art Museum, the Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Isabella Stewart
Gardner Museum
I.
Museum Publications
II. Catalogues Raisonnes and Complete Works
III. Periodicals
IV. Biography
V. Internet Resources--
(Museum Collections online, evaluating/citing websites, Art
History databases)
When researching a work of art you have seen in a museum, it is important to have in your notes basic information about the work: museum's accession number, date museum acquired the work--may be included in the accession number, artist, title of the work, date of work, medium. Most of this information may be found on the label the museum placed near your art object. If the museum has a database of the artworks in its collections, you can get most of the information online. Having this information will help you avoid some problems that may arise during your research as you look for information about the work in books and journal articles. For example:
--Artists sometimes make more than one artwork with the same or similar title in the same or different mediums--oil, charcoal, marble, clay, etc. ; Monet is a good example!
--Titles of art objects may appear in different languages, e.g., an American museum may or may not translate into English the title of an object made, say, by a French artist. Degas' Dancer is an example. Books and journals may retain the original French title or translate it into English.
--Museums add works of art to their collections and also remove (deaccession) them from their collections. This may cause confusion when the object discussed in a publication seems to be the one you are researching but the book or article says it is in a different museum. It is a good idea to begin your research by looking for the most recent publications of the museum where your work of art is located or in the museum's artwork database if one is available. There you probably will find a "history of ownership" of the work of art.
I. Museum Publications.
Museums publish catalogs of their collections and exhibitions, and monographs (books) on artists, etc. These publications often provide a description of the work of art, its Provenance/Ownership History (for example, a work of art was made in 1899 but the museum did not acquire it until 1999: where was it for those 100 years when it may have been published in many or several books and articles?), and a list of references to other publications.
In the library catalog, the museum is considered an "ALT AUTHOR"
even though the publication was written by a PERSONAL AUTHOR.
Search the library catalog
by author=name of the museum. The work of art we
want to research is Rembrandt's Self-Portrait, 1629, in
the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
Scroll down the list of titles to see if there is one that seems relevant to your work of art by artist, period, nationality, etc.
Click on the title to get the call number of the book and find out if it is available in the library.
To see if the library has other books on the general subject of Rembrandt and self-portraits, search the library catalog by word=rembrandt and self-portrait*.
II. Catalogues Raisonnes and Complete Works.
These catalogues publish all the works of an artist or all the works made in a particular period or located in a specific collection. The amount of information they provide varies. To find them in the library collection, search the library catalog by subject=rembrandt and scroll to the added subject headings, catalogs or catalogues raisonnes.
To find other general books on Rembrandt, search the library catalog by subject=rembrandt.
If you want to see if other libraries have other books on Rembrandt, search Worldcat. You may request books from other libraries through Interlibrary Loan and the Virtual Catalog.
III. Periodicals (journals, serials, magazines).
To find articles in periodicals about Rembrandt's self-portraits, use databases that index art periodicals by subject and keyword. Links to these databases are provided on the web page, Find Articles using Databases: Art and Architecture. (To configure your computer so you can access these databases, click on Connecting to electronic resources from off-campus). You will not always be able to find articles just about your work of art, but you may be able to find general articles that include your work of art. Indexes sometimes include a list of titles of artworks discussed in an article. The only way you can find out for certain is to get the articles and skim through them.
The databases below contain citations* to articles published in journals; some also contain abstracts (summaries) of articles. None contains the full text of the articles online. After you have found citations to articles, see if those articles are available online by typing the title of the journal in the search box on the E-journals A-Z web page. Make sure the entry for the electronic journal indicates the year your article was published. If the journal is not available online, click on the link to the library catalog to see if it is available in print.
*Citation
example (journal article): Chapman , H. P. "Expression,
temperament and imagination in Rembrandt's earliest self-portraits."
Art History v. 12 (June 1989) p. 158-75.
Citation format(journal article): Author(s), title of article,
journal title, volume number, issue number,
date, page numbers.
Citation example (book chapter): The Performance of the Abject: Jean Genet's Ce qui est resté d'un Rembrandt and Pompes funèbres By: Jones, David; pp. 37-50 IN: Best, Victoria (ed.); Collier, Peter (ed.); Powerful Bodies: Performance in French Cultural Studies. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang; 1999. 220 pp.
The following databases are online indexes to articles published in journals and/or chapters in books. These indexes let you search by keyword, artist, etc. These databases do not contain the full texts of the articles indexed. You must go to E-journals A-Z to find out if your articles are available online.
l. Art Index and Art Index Retrospective are databases that index art periodicals published since 1929. Use Advanced Search. The percentages indicate relevancy to your search words.
Select the citations to articles you want to read. Click on the symbol with books on a shelf. This is a direct link to the library catalog's record for the periodical where your article is published.
The library catalog provides the call number for the journal. (Please note the library may have the periodical, but not have the year you need. Check the line: LIB HAS:) Make sure you have a copy of your citation with you when you go to the library stacks to get the periodical. There will be many volumes with the same call number. You will need to know the year of the volume you need. It also helps to have the page numbers.
The library catalog may not have a link to an online journal. Always check E-journals A-Z.
2. Bibliography of the History of Art is another database indexing art periodicals. Many of them are published in foreign languages. Use Advanced Search. You can use the Language limit function for English only.
3. ARTbibliographies Modern 1974+ is a database indexing articles on works of art that were made from the late 1800's to the present. It indexes many of the same periodicals as Art Index, but worth trying if your artist is contemporary.
IV. Biography.
Grove Dictionary of Art has biographies of well-known artists. Contemporary artist biographies are being added. You usually do not need to select "biographies."
Biography
and Geneaology Master Index
This index might help you find sources for lesser known artists.
Also try:
Art History Research
Guide: Biographical Sources
These sources are primarily reference books in Mugar Memorial Library.
See also the following:
American Art: Biographical Sources
Photography: Biographical Sources
Twentieth-Century
Art: Biographical Sources
V. Internet Resources.
These are websites that provide links to either BU subscriptions or to free webpages. Many of the pages provide lists of links.
Art History Research Guide with links to other art-related research guides.
Find Articles using Databases: Art and Architecture
Google Scholar and Google Books
Harvard
University Art Museums Collections Online
http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/collections/basicSearch.smvc
How to Research an Artwork (UC Berkeley)
Internet Archive, online books published before 192.
Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum Collection Highlights
http://www.gardnermuseum.org/collection/highlights.asp
Judging Qualilty on the Web (UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library)
Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston Online Collections Database
http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp
Online Books Page, mainly pre-1923 books
Citation
Styles for Online Documents (Bedford/St. Martin's Press)
Research and Documentation
Online (citing books, journal articles, etc.)
Chicago-Style
Citation Quick Guide (citing online and print books and journals)
http://www.bu.edu/library/instruction/woa/