This information leaflet is intended to give the researcher a guide to some of the main sources widely available. It does not list works devoted to individual artists.

Galleries & other collections

Most galleries keep detailed records of their holdings and are willing to let the serious student have access to their records. Some compile biographical notes on artists and keep details of other pictures not in their collection. However, it most cases it is necessary to make an appointment, as few galleries will entertain a casual visitor. Quite often a letter will elicit the information required.
There are too many galleries to list here, but, ‘Museums & Galleries in Great Britain & Ireland’, list all the main galleries. The most useful are:

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Queen Street, Edinburgh, EH2

The National Portrait Gallery, Heinz Archive & Library, St. Martin’s Place, London, WC2H 0HE.

The Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL

There are also two centres that collect photographs of portraits and paintings and have them arranged by artist. In both cases an appointment is unnecessary. They are:

University of London, Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 0RN

The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 20 Bloomsbury Square, London WC1A 2NS

The Scottish Record Office, Register House, Edinburgh, EH1 3YY, has compiled a card index of references to artists contained in the Gifts and Deposits section. These cards may contain much useful information as to sitter, price, transportation of works, etc..

Some specialist art libraries have compiled very useful catalogues of articles and books about individual artists. They are often on cards or paper slips and are arranged alphabetically by artist. One such collection is kept by:
Fine Arts Library, Edinburgh Central Library, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1EG.

Dictionaries

Dictionaries of artists tend to give brief details: name, dates, country, representative price, major works, but the more specialised the dictionary the more information there is. Although some are in a foreign language it is comparatively easy to extract the main information.

A Book of Sporting Painters. London, 1931. W.S.Sparrow

A Concise Dictionary of Scottish Painters. Paul Harris, Edinburgh, 1977.

Angling in British Art. London, 1923. W.S.Sparrow.

Artists’ Directory. [1874].

British Nineteenth Century Marine Painting, 1974 Antique Collectors’ Club. Denys Brook Hart.

British Painters of the Coast and Sea. Charles Hemming. n.d.

British Silhouette Artists & their work, 1760 1860. Sue McKechnie, London, 1978.

Catalogue & Supplement of 5800 named & dated English Silhouette Portraits by A. Edouart, 1789 1861. E.N. Jackson.

British Sporting Artists. London, 1922. W.S.Sparrow.

British Twentieth Century Marine Painting, 1981 Antique Collectors’ Club. Denys Brook Hart

Bryan’s Dictionary of Painters & Engravers, London 1903, 5 vols.

Classified Directory of Artists’ Signatures, Symbols & Monograms. 1983 P. Grahame Publishing. H.H.Caplan

The Shorter Dictionary of Artist’s signatures. R. Jackson, London 1980.

Dictionaires de Peintures, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs. Paris, 1976, 10 vols. E. Benezit

Dictionary of British Animal Painters. 1973, F. Lewis Pubn. Lt. Col. J.C.Wood.

Dictionary of British Artists 1880 1940. 1988, ed. J.Johnson and A.Greutzner.

Dictionary of British Artists Working 1900 1950, 2 vols. G.M. Waters, Eastbourne 1975.

Dictionary of British Bird Painters, 1974. Frank Lewis.

Dictionary of British Book Illustrators The Twentieth Century, London 1983. Brigid Peppin & Lucy Mickelthwait.

Dictionary of British Book Illustrators & Caricaturists, 1800 1914. Suffolk, 1978. Simon Houfe.

Dictionary of British Equestrian Artists. Antique Collectors’ Club 1985, Sally Mitchell.

Dictionary of British Etchers. Col. Maurice Harold Grant.

Dictionary of British Flower, Fruit & Still Life Painters. 1974, 2 vols. F.Lewis Pubn. R. Brinsley Burbidge.

Dictionary of British Landscape Painters, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century, 1952, F.Lewis publication. Col. Maurice Harold Grant.

Dictionary of British Marine Painters. Arnold Wilson, 1974.

Dictionary of British Medallists. Col. Maurice Harold Grant.

Dictionary of British Narrative Painters. 1978, F. Lewis Pubn. Stephen Sartin

Dictionary of British Portrait Painters in Britain up to 1920, B. Stewart & M. Cutten, Antique Collectors Club, 1997.

Dictionary of British Portraiture. Batsford, 1979 1981, 4 vols.

Dictionary of British Sporting Painters. 1965 F. Lewis Pubn. Sydney Herbert Pavière.

Dictionary of British Water colour Artists up to 1920. 1976 2 vols., Antique Collectors Club. H.L.Mallalieu.

Dictionary of Water colour Painters 1750 1900. 1972 Stanley W. Fisher F.R.S.A..

Dictionary of Sea Painters, E.H.H. Archibald, Antique Collectors Club, 1980.

Dictionary of 16th & 17th Century British Painters. E. Waterhouse, Woodbridge, 1988.

Dictionary of Irish Artists. Dublin 1913, 2 vols. reprinted 1989.W.G.Strickland

Dictionary of Victorian Landscape Painters. 1968, F. Lewis Pubn.. Sydney Herbert Pavière.

Dictionary of Victorian Painters, 1978. C. Wood

Directory of Master Glass Painters, ed. Brian Thomas, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1972.

Künstler Lexikon. Leipzig, 1907. 37 vols. + 8 supplementary vols. U. Thieme & F. Becker.

Marine Painting in England 1700 1900. David Cordingley, New York 1973.

Monograms of Victorian & Edwardian Artists. 1976, Victoria Square Press. Peter Nahum.

Who’s Who in Art, 1927 , 23 vols.

Engravers & Sitters

Before the advent of photography, engravings and mezzotints were the main vehicle by which likenesses of people received a wider audience. There are not many general works, but those that do exist usually contain information about the sitter as well as the engraver.

British Mezzotints Portraits. London 1882 1884. John Chaloner Smith.

British Prints. A Dictionary & price guide, 1987, Antique Collectors Club. Ian Mackenzie.

Catalogue of Drawings by British Artists. 4 vols. British Museum, 1898 Laurence Binyon.

Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits, 6 vols. 1908+ , British Museum. ed. Freeman O’Donoghue F.S.A.

Dictionary of Scottish Artists, W.T. Johnston, 1993, on computer discs [At Nat. Lib. Scot.] including Architects; glass painters & stainers; Engravers.

Edinburgh Engravers. Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, vol. 9, 1916. John C. Guy.

Original Portraits. 4 Vols. 1837 Edinburgh. John Kay

Scottish Engravers to c. 1820. O.U.P. 1949. George Herbert Bushnell.

Sporting Aquatints & their Engravers 1775 1820. F.Lewis Pubn. 1978. Charles Lane.

Strutt’s Dictionary of Engravers, 2 vols., Joseph Strutt, London, 1785.

Exhibitors & Exhibitions

Although there are too many exhibitions to list, some of the larger Societies have produced compilations of their annual exhibitions. Once again these works may give information about the sitter as well.

Royal Academy Exhibitors 1769 1904. 8 vols. London 1905 1906. Algernon Graves

Royal Academy Exhibitors 1905 1970. 6 vols. E.P.Publishing 1973+.

Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts. Index of Exhibitors 1826 1979, 3 vols. ed. Ann M. Stewart

Royal Scottish Academy 1826 1916, Academicians & exhibits. Glasgow 1917. W.D.McKay

Royal Scottish Academy, [History of] 1826 1976. Esme Gordon.

Royal Society of British Artists Exhibitors 1824 1962. 5 Vols. F.Lewis Pubn. 1973 1977. Maurice Bradshaw

Royal Society of British Artists 1824 1893 & New English Art Club 1888 1917. Antique Collectors Club 1975. Compiled by Jane Johnson.

Society of Artists 1760 1791 & the Free Art Society 1761 1783. London 1907. Algernon Graves F.S.A.

Walpole Society Vol. 27, 1938/1939 by Hugh Gatty. This work gives additional information about sitters in portraits exhibited at the Society of Artists & The Free Society of Artists, as recorded by Horace Walpole, 1760 1791.

Works Exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists 1824 1893: and the New English Art Club, 2 vols.. The Antique Collectors Club, 1975.

Miniaturists & Miniatures

Miniatures were used in place of photographs by the more well to do, and sitters names are given where known.

British Miniaturists, London, 1929. Basil Long.

Collecting Miniatures. Antique Collectors Club 1979. Daphne Foskett.

Dictionary of British Miniature Painters. 2 Vols. Faber & Faber 1972. Daphne Foskett.

Miniatures a Dictionary & Guide. Antique Collectors Club 1987. Daphne Foskett.

Miniature Painters British & Foreign. 2 vols. London 1903. J.J. Foster.

Portraits & Sitters

Several compilations of portraits have been published, including those in the Royal Collection. These tend to be of the more famous or wealthy people of history, but often only a description of the work is provided with a few representative illustrations. However, notes are usually given as to the location of the paintings and in some cases one can get to view them. Black & White photographs may be available from the Witt Library & Paul Mellon Centre [see above]. Many works on stately homes contain references to and reproductions of portraits in their collections, but are too numerous to mention.

The Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Females, including beauties of the courts of George IV & William IV. John Burke, 2 vols., 1833.

A survey of Portraits in Welsh Houses. 2 vols. 1957, Cardiff. John H. Steegman.

Early Victorian Portraits, 2 vols. 1973 H.M.S.O. Richard Ormrod.

Early Georgian Portraits, 2 vols. H.M.S.O. 1977. John Kerslake.

Later Georgian Pictures in the Royal Collection, 2 vols. Phaidon 1969 Oliver Millar.

Dictionary of British Portraiture vol. 1 historical figures born before 1700. A. Davies.

Dictionary of British Portraiture vol. 2 historical figures born between 1700 and 1800. E. Kilmurray, London 1979.

Dictionary of British Portraiture vol. 3 historical figures born between 1800 and 1860. E. Kilmurray, London 1981.

Dictionary of British Portraiture vol. 4 historical figures born before 1900. A. Davies.

Iconographica Scotica; or portraits of eminent persons of Scotland. 2vols. John Pinkerton, 1797 & 1799.

National Portrait Gallery Complete Illustrated Catalogue. N.P.G. 1981. Compiled by K.K.Young.

Portraits in the India Office Library & Records. P. Rohatgi, London 1983.

Regency Portraits, 2 vols. N.P.G. 1985. Richard Walker.

Tudor & Jacobean Portraits, 2 vols. H.M.S.O. 1979. Roy Strong.

Tudor, Stuart & Early Georgian Pictures in the Royal Collection, 2 vols. Phaidon 1963. Oliver Millar.

Women Artists

Not a great deal of work has been done on women artists in the past, but the number of works available is growing.

A Biographical Dictionary of Women Artists in Europe and America since 1850. P. Dunford, London 1990.

The Obstacle Race, London 1979. Germaine Greer.

Victorian Women Artists. Women’s Press, London 1987. Pamela Gerrish Nunn.

Women & Art. London 1978. Elsa Honig Fine.

Women Artists. Women’s Press, London 1978. Karen Petersen & J.J.Wilson.

Women Painters of the World. London, 1905. W.S.Sparrow

Sculptors

Bronze Sculptors & Founders, 1800 1930. 4 vols. Chicago 1974 1980. Harold Berman.

Dictionary of British Sculptors, 1660 1851. London 1968. Rupert Gunnis.

Dictionary of British Sculptors. London 1953. Col. Maurice Harold Grant.

New Dictionary of Modern Sculpture. New York 1970. ed. Robert Mailhard.

SCOTLAND

Ancients (Group of Artists - William Blake and his circle), Glasgow, Hunterian 1993.

Art as a family affair the Fraser brothers. Charles Lane, in Country Life, vol.165, 1979.

Concise Dictionary of Scottish Painters, Edinburgh 1976.

Concise Catalogue of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, D. Thomson & S.B. Lockhart, 1977.

Dictionary of Scottish Art & Architecture, Peter J.M. McEwan, Suffolk, 1994.

Dictionary of Scottish Artists, W.T. Johnston, 1993, on computer discs [At Nat. Lib. Scot.] including Architects; glass painters & stainers; Engravers.

Dictionary of Scottish Painters, Paul Harris & Julian Halsby, Edinburgh 1990.

Glasgow League of Artists, year book, 1979/1980.

Painters in Scotland 1301 1700. Scottish Record Society, 1978. M.R.Apted & S.Hannabuss.

Scottish Art 1460 1990. 2vols. Duncan Macmillan, Edinburgh 1990.

Stirlingshire

The artists of Craigmill & Cambuskenneth, 1880 1920 :[catalogue]. Fiona Wilson, Stirling, 1978.