“A catalogue raisonne of paintings by Thomas Nast (American 1840-1902) is being configured by an entity funded by the Fred R. Kline Gallery.” This announcement appeared in the October 2010 issue of Maine Antiques Digest in a full page advertisement.
Yes, their goal is to assemble information about all of Thomas Nast’s paintings, visuals and any related background information. This information may be published in a book enlarging everyone’s understanding of Thomas Nast. Projects such as these generally take years, often in excess of 10, as locating as many examples as possible takes time, effort and good fortune.
The gallery funding this project wins as it becomes known as a relative authority on the work of the artist. Often this same gallery becomes heavily involved in the marketing the artist’s work, often earning back funds spent is assembling the catalogue raisonne and then some.
It is generally to the advantage of the art owner to participate. Your artwork reproduced in the catalogue raisonne gives it substance in the eyes of the art buying public. In fact if it does not appear there, some doubt can be expressed as the artwork’s authenticity.
To avoid being targeted by other art dealers or potential art thieves, you might choose to list its ownership as “private collection”. You also want to carefully read the agreement provided by the entity putting the book together, stipulating they will not reveal your private information to anyone outside of the project.
Corinne Cain of www.SavvyCollector.com
We will identify various catalogue raisonnes in process in the months ahead on the SavvyCollector blog. SavvyCollector.com does not have a vested interest in listing these projects. Our intention is to share valuable information with our blog readers, which could earn us your respect and loyalty.
*Catalogue raisonne represents an attempt to chronicle all known works of art, sometimes subdivided by medium, in chronological order. Often each of these is illustrated either in color or black and white. Catalogue raisonnes are loosely known by the author’s last name ie. the Baer books are the most recent catalogue raisonnes of Picasso’s work.