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| Documentation
The images in the Photoarchive are accompanied by extensive documentation
about the work of art, gathered as much from unpublished scholars’ observations
and opinions as from conventional published sources. Basic information such as
dimensions, medium, and support is supplemented by former and current
attributions, title history, exhibition record, and color and condition notes. Past
and current owners have also provided the Library with information about
portrait subjects and provenance. These essential data for object-based
research offer valuable primary source material that the Library continues to
update.
Provenance Research
The extensive provenance information included in the documentation is a
unique resource for scholars, students, and art market professionals. Used in
conjunction with the Library’s other resources, it has facilitated the restitution of lost or stolen works
of art in many international cases.
A case in point is Gustav Klimt’s Portrait
of a Lady (“Damenbildnis en
face"), which had been confiscated from Bernhard Altmann by the German National
Socialists in June 1938. On May 4, 2004, the Austrian government returned
the painting to its rightful owners. Crucial documentation preserved in the
Library supported the case to return this work to the Altmann heirs.
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Recently included for sale at Christie's London, Sale 7701,
Impressionist/Modern Art,
4 February 2009,
London, King Street |
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Jacopo Robusti (Il Tintoretto) (1518–1594), The Raising of Lazarus, c.1556-1557, oil on canvas, 42 x 58 in. (106.7 x 143.7 cm.), The Jesuit Center, Wernersville, Pennsylvania, on loan to the Reading Public Museum, Reading, Pennsylvania (gift from the Reading Public Museum, unidentified photographic source)
To read about the painting, visit the New York Times online (photographed by Scott Gordon, photographer for the New York Times) |
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