These reference works are "reasoned catalogs" of an artist's entire output, arranged chronologically, thematically, or by medium, and often include images of each artwork, with information on its dimensions, exhibition history, provenance, condition, and context within the artist's career. Essays on the artist and extensive bibliographies and notes are also featured in these resources.

To find catalogues raisonnes in the library catalog or in WorldCat Firstsearch, a global catalog of library holdings, search for subjects such as:

• Artists -- Bibliography
• Catalogues raisonnes -- Indexes

To locate catalogues raisonnes on specific artists, search for the artist's name in conjunction with search terms such as:

• Catalogs
• Catalogues raisonnes
• Criticism and interpretation
• Life and work
• Oeuvres
• Werkverzeichnis

You can also locate information on catalogues raisonnes online in other indexes, including:

International Foundation for Art Research. "Catalogues Raisonnes." International Foundation for Art Research Website.

This regularly-updated database of catalogues raisonnes includes both published works and resources in progress, with complete bibliographic citations for the published information and contact information for the scholars working on the forthcoming publications.

New York Art Resources Consortium. "Catalogues Raisonnes." Archive It! Website.

NYARC collaborated with the Internet Archive to create this list of born-digital catalogues raisonnes that archives sites created from 2014 to the present. A wide range of artists from diverse time periods and places are represented here, including Daumier, Noguchi, Whistler, Torres-Garcia, Hiroshige, and Bourgeois.

Collection catalogs include inventories of the collections of academic and corporate entities, individuals, and museums. These resources often include images of and information on the physical description of artworks, as well as provenance information. Basic scholarship on specific works of art and information on the context and history of the collection or institution are also commonly found in these works. To find collection catalogs in the library catalog or in WorldCat Firstsearch, search for subjects such as the following:

• Art collections -- Catalogs
• Art museums -- Catalogs

To locate catalogs for specific entities, try searching for terms such as the following:

• Art Institute of Chicago -- Catalogs
• Bergman, Lindy -- Art collections -- Catalogs
• Sara Lee Corporation -- Art collections -- Catalogs

Online resources for locating collection catalogs include:

Center for the History of Collecting. Archive Directory for the History of Collecting in America. Frick Collection Website.

This work-in-progress allows you to search geographically, by timeline, or alphabetically by collector to locate information on American art collectors, dealers, and agents. Entries include details on the individual's dates, collecting interest, and location, as well as a list of primary-source resources pertinent to the collector's activities with details about the repositories that hold them.

Europeana. Europeana Collections. Europeana Website.

Search across European museums, libraries, and archives to locate collection materials.

Exhibition catalogs serve as the permanent record for temporary exhibitions, documenting the contents and themes of the shows. The library has reference works that document multiple exhibitions, as well as catalogs for specific exhibitions. To locate exhibition catalogs in the library catalog or in WorldCat Firstsearch, search for subjects such as the following:

• Art, American -- 19th century -- Exhibitions
• Exhibitions -- Indexes

Here is an example of the sort of material these sorts of headings will retrieve:

Altshuler, Bruce. Exhibitions That Made Art History. London ; Phaidon, 2008.

To locate catalogs for particular exhibitions, search for keywords and phrases such as the following:

• Abercrombie, Gertrude -- Exhibitions
• Biennale di Venezia -- Periodicals
• Documenta (Exhibition)
• Galerie Durand-Ruel -- Exhibitions
• World's Columbian Exposition AND fine arts

To locate exhibition catalogs for specific artists or institutions, try an advanced search in the library catalog. In the first search box, enter the name of the artist as a subject or the name of the museum as an author. In the second search box, enter exhibit* (this will return results for exhibit and exhibition).

Many museums retain archives of their exhibitions online, such as:

Institutional Archives of the Art Institute of Chicago. Art Institute of Chicago Exhibition History. Art Institute Website.

This work in progress contains a comprehensive listing of all exhibitions in the museum's history. Staff in the museum archives are adding digitized exhibition catalogs and installation images as they are available and time permits.

Other types of exhibition research tools are also available online, such as this resource that allows you to search across North American exhibitions:

Smithsonian American Art Museum. Pre-1877 Art Exhibition Catalogue Index. Smithsonian Institution Research Information System Website. 

This digital index to art exhibitions in the United States and Canada through 1876 can be searched by artist, exhibition, title, object type, or provenance term. Entries contain detailed information on the catalog contents and information on the repositories that hold each catalog.