A catalogue raisonné is a comprehensive, annotated listing of all the known works of an artist either in a particular medium or in all media. It is typically produced by a group of family members, artists, experts, or academics. According to the New York Public Library, a catalogue raisonné may provide some or all of the following: title and title variations, dimension/size, date of the work, medium, current location/owner at time of publication, provenance (history of ownership), exhibition history, condition of the work, bibliography/literature that discusses the work, essays on the artist, critical assessments and remarks, full description of the work, signatures, inscriptions,and monograms of the artist, reproduction of each work, list of work attributed, lost, destroyed, and fakes, and catalog number.
The process of creating and updating a catalogue raisonné is normally based on the research and investigation of art historians and experts and can take many years to complete. It also depends upon the cooperation of third-party stakeholders, who often possess important archival information and control access to the works of art themselves. Historic photographs and exhibition catalogues, dealer’s records, and other archival documents help experts form an opinion about whether to include aparticular work of art in the catalogue. When such documentation does not exist, scholars may still include a work based on their educated opinions, professional experience, and connoisseurship. The New York Times has described catalogues raisonnés as the “supreme arbiter[s] of the genuine and fake.” In the case of deceased artists, the author of a catalogue raisonné may have considerable power to determine whether a particular work is authentic or not. As long as there are works of art that are lent, exhibited, published, bought, sold, lost, and destroyed, catalogues raisonnés will need to be updated. According to the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, a producer of catalogues raisonnés, digital catalogues raisonnés now enable scholars and researchers to modify the publication with recent findings and new opinions. Cited archives and publications can be hyperlinked to offer readers access to primary source materials and new perspectives.