How to create a digital catalogue raisonné: a project roadmap
Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Landscape with Sheep (Kylämaisema lampaineen), 1884, Oil on paper attached on hardboard, 22 x 34.5 cm, Ateneum Art Museum. Image courtesy of the Ateneum Art Museum/Finnish National Gallery and Jenni Nurminen.
Starting a digital catalogue raisonné does not begin with choosing a database or designing a website. It begins by defining what the project will document, who has authority to make decisions, and how evidence will be recorded.
A catalogue raisonné is a researched and annotated account of an artist’s work within a defined scope. That scope may encompass an entire oeuvre or a particular medium, period, or category. Individual entries commonly bring together images, titles, dates, materials, dimensions, provenance, exhibition histories, bibliography, and supporting evidence. The International Catalogue Raisonné Association provides a useful overview of the form and its scholarly purpose.
A digital catalogue raisonné adds new possibilities for connecting, searching, correcting, and publishing this research. It also creates continuing responsibilities for data, images, rights, technology, and maintenance.
This roadmap sets out the principal stages of a project and identifies the decisions that should be made before choosing a technical approach.
1. Define the scope and scholarly authority
Begin by writing a clear scope statement. It should explain what belongs in the catalogue and what falls outside it.
Consider:
Which artist, period, media, or categories of work will be covered?
Will the catalogue include lost, destroyed, unfinished, or unrealized works?
Will uncertain, disputed, or rejected attributions appear?
How will the project relate to earlier catalogues and numbering systems?
Who are the intended readers?
Will the catalogue be published all at once or in stages?
A broad ambition is not the same as a defined scope. If the project concentrates on one medium or period, state that boundary clearly. If its scope may expand later, distinguish the present publication from possible future work.
The project also needs an identifiable scholarly authority. Determine who can decide:
Whether a work is included
How attribution categories are defined
What evidence is sufficient for publication
How conflicting evidence is evaluated
How uncertainty is expressed
When a record is ready to publish
How corrections will be reviewed
Record these decisions in an editorial policy. The International Catalogue Raisonné Association’s overview of catalogue organization highlights the importance of methodology, sources, catalogue conventions, concordances, and questions requiring further study.
A catalogue can present authoritative research without suggesting that every question has been resolved. Its authority rests partly on making its boundaries and methods visible.
2. Establish the team and project governance
A catalogue raisonné requires scholarly, organizational, editorial, and technical work. One person may perform several roles, but each responsibility should have a named owner.
The project needs people who can take responsibility for:
Scholarly research and editorial decisions
Project coordination, schedules, and budgets
Records, sources, and research data
Images, permissions, and credit lines
Editing and quality review
Technical administration and publication
Long-term institutional and financial oversight
Clarify who completes the work, who reviews it, and who has final authority. Otherwise, a project can accumulate substantial information without having a reliable process for approving, correcting, or publishing it.
Governance should extend beyond the current team. Document important decisions and establish what happens when a researcher, editor, institution, or technical partner changes.
The budget should also cover the project’s full lifecycle. Relevant costs may include research staff, archival travel, photography, digitization, conservation research, rights clearance, editing, translation, data preparation, technical setup, accessibility work, hosting, maintenance, and preservation.
Avoid treating publication as the final budget line. A digital catalogue requires continued editorial and technical care after launch.
3. Audit the existing research
Before choosing technology, determine what information the project already has and where it is located.
Potential sources include:
Earlier catalogues and object lists
Databases, spreadsheets, and card indexes
Artist, estate, gallery, and institutional archives
Exhibition catalogues and published literature
Sale, loan, and ownership records
Conservation and examination reports
Photographs, slides, negatives, and digital images
Research held by individual scholars
Undocumented knowledge held by staff or family members
The audit should identify what is reliable, what requires verification, what is duplicated or contradictory, and what remains unknown. It should also note which materials can be digitized or published and which are affected by rights, privacy, or contractual restrictions.
Do not assume that everything must be cleaned or migrated immediately. First identify the information that the catalogue actually needs.
A representative pilot can help. Select a small group of works that includes straightforward records as well as disputed dates, complicated provenance, multiple images, missing information, or earlier catalogue numbers. These examples will reveal more about the project’s requirements than a list of ideal features.
4. Translate the scholarship into requirements
Once the scope and existing research are understood, define what the project must be able to record and do.
A requirements document might address:
Artwork records and relationships between works
People, organizations, places, exhibitions, and publications
Provenance and ownership events
Sources supporting individual statements
Attribution categories and degrees of uncertainty
Editorial status and revision history
Catalogue numbers, internal identifiers, and concordances
Images, documents, rights, and access restrictions
Multiple languages
Private, restricted, and public information
Search and publication requirements
Data and image exports
These are scholarly requirements before they are technical features.
Structured data stores different kinds of information in defined places and preserves their relationships. This allows a reader to move from an artwork to its exhibitions, owners, publications, archival sources, and related works. Our introduction to metadata for art researchers explains how this structure supports research, comparison, and citation.
Avoid turning the requirements document into a wish list of everything technology could conceivably provide. Concentrate on what the scholarship, editorial process, and intended readers require.
5. Choose a digital strategy
Most digital catalogue raisonné projects use one of three general approaches:
A purpose-built catalogue raisonné platform
An assembled system connecting several existing tools
Software developed specifically for one project
Each approach distributes responsibility differently. The relevant question is not only what can be built, but also who will configure, test, maintain, fund, and eventually replace it.
Several newer resources can help with this decision:
Our guide to choosing a digital strategy for your catalogue raisonné compares purpose-built platforms, assembled systems, and custom development in detail.
The digital catalogue raisonné software and technology FAQ provides shorter answers to common questions about terminology, costs, timelines, and platform evaluation.
Our study of the technology behind 118 published digital catalogues raisonnés shows the technical approaches identifiable across the surveyed publications. The study examines their technology, not the quality or content of their scholarship.
The digital asset management guide for catalogues raisonnés addresses the more specific question of how images and other files should be identified, governed, delivered, and maintained.
The strongest technical approach is the one that fits the scholarship and can be sustained by the organization responsible for it.
6. Research, review, publish, and maintain
Research and publication do not always occur in a simple sequence. New evidence may change the project’s structure, reveal additional rights questions, or require earlier decisions to be reconsidered.
For each significant statement, record:
The source
Where the relevant information appears
What the source directly establishes
Who entered or reviewed the information
Whether the conclusion remains uncertain or disputed
Not every gap can be filled. The catalogue should distinguish documented information, scholarly interpretation, and unresolved questions.
Rights review should proceed alongside the research. Copyright in an artwork, copyright in a photograph, ownership of the physical object, archival permissions, privacy, contractual restrictions, and required credit lines are separate considerations. They may determine which materials can appear publicly and which must remain restricted.
Before publication, review the catalogue for:
Accuracy within individual records
Consistency across the complete publication
Clear citations and qualifications
Correct permissions and credit lines
Protection of private or restricted information
Functional search, filters, links, and citations
Meaningful alternative text
Clear display on different screen sizes
A visible process for submitting corrections or new evidence
Research does not necessarily need to be complete before publication. A catalogue may be released in defined stages if readers can understand what has been published, what remains in progress, and when the information was last reviewed. The Akseli Gallen-Kallela catalogue raisonné offers one example of incremental publication.
After launch, establish who will review new evidence, approve corrections, update rights information, and maintain the publication. Plan for continued funding, regular exports, backups, technological change, and staff succession.
Our examination of authority, access, and infrastructure in the catalogue raisonné after digital considers why this long-term stewardship is part of the scholarly work rather than a separate technical concern.
Begin with the decisions you can explain
A digital catalogue raisonné does not begin with a feature list. It begins with a defined scholarly purpose, a responsible team, an assessment of the available evidence, and a clear account of what the project needs to record and publish.
Technology can then support those decisions without determining them.