Catalogue raisonné or Catalogue contaminé? Art Historians at the Crossroads

The second half of the nineteenth century was a crucial period for the consolidation of art history as an academic discipline in German-speaking countries. That period also witnessed a sharpening of attitudes toward the genres of the discipline’s literature—attitudes sometimes shaped by the different tasks art historians confronted when working in a museum or university. The status of the catalogue raisonné cannot be viewed in terms of a simple dichotomy between these two fields of activity, however, the less so as the opinions of individual protagonists occasionally changed over time and according to circumstances. As such, the numerous voices assembled in this contribution reveal an interesting variety of methodological approaches. The artist’s bio­graphy emerges here as a telling counterpoint to the evolution of the catalogue raisonné at a time of elated nation-statehood that was of paramount importance for the history of art history.The second half of the nineteenth century was a crucial period for the consolidation of art history as an academic discipline in German-speaking countries. That period also witnessed a sharpening of attitudes toward the genres of the discipline’s literature—attitudes sometimes shaped by the different tasks art historians confronted when working in a museum or university. The status of the catalogue raisonné cannot be viewed in terms of a simple dichotomy between these two fields of activity, however, the less so as the opinions of individual protagonists occasionally changed over time and according to circumstances. As such, the numerous voices assembled in this contribution reveal an interesting variety of methodological approaches. The artist’s bio­graphy emerges here as a telling counterpoint to the evolution of the catalogue raisonné at a time of elated nation-statehood that was of paramount importance for the history of art history