Artist: name

Is the artist’s name known?
What is his or her main name?
What is his or her first name(s)?
Is the artist known by a pseudonym?
If the artist was female, what was her maiden name?
If the artist was female what were her married name(s)?
If the artist was female, did she use more than one name to sign or exhibit her work?
Was the artist known by a nickname?
Did the artist use a preferred name, or become known by a preferred name?
>> Library of Congress name authority (http://authorities.loc.gov/)
>> Getty Research Institute’s Union List of Artists Names (http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/index.html)
>> Oxford DNB (http://www.oxforddnb.com/)

 

Artist: title

Does the artist hold an official title? E.g. President of the Royal Academy?
Is the artist’s name, or the artist’s name as attached to the portrait, prefixed by a foretitle or suffix, e.g. Sir, Lady, Bt. (Baronet)?
Does the artist hold an aristocratic title?

 

Artist: dates

What is the earliest date recorded for the artist?

Is the artist’s birth date confirmed by a primary source such as a birth, marriage or death certificate?

>> General Register Office (http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/)
>> Census Online  (http://www.ukcensusonline.com/)
>> Case Study 14 – Thomas Taunton by an anonymous artist of the English school c.1744-50 and Samuel Taunton, by an anonymous artist of the English school c.1749-53

Is the artist’s baptismal date recorded in a parish register or family bible?

>> Family Search, international genealogical index (https://familysearch.org/)

Can you give a date range for a period in the artist’s life when he or she was known to be active? i.e. a floruit date (fl.) Can this be established from exhibition records, sale catalogues, sitter books or correspondence?

Are there any registration dates when the artist became a pupil or student? Is he or she recorded in the Royal Academy registers? Did he or she become a member of a professional organisation?
Was the artist married? Is the date of his or her marriage (or marriages) known or recorded on a marriage certificate, or mentioned in a will, or entered in a family bible?
>> General Register Office (http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/)
What is the latest date recorded for the artist?
Is his or her death date known or recorded on a death certificate/will/family bible? Are there reliable obituaries for the sitter in the national or local press, or art historical journals?
>> General Register Office (http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/)
Is the artist’s date of burial known or recorded in cemetery records/family correspondence/ orders of service?
Is there a known date of probate for the administration of the artist’s estate?
>> Probate records (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/atoz/p.htm)
Did the artist leave a will? What was the date it was signed?

>> National Register of Archives (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/)

 

Artist: education

Where was the artist educated at school, college or university? Is he or she listed in school registers, university matriculation records, or other formal records that might provide information about, for example, age or date of birth?

Did the artist attend art school, or an academy of art?  Is he or she listed in registers? If so does his or her date of matriculation give any indication of age or date of birth?

Was the artist a pupil of another artist?  Are there any surviving indentures or records of apprenticeship?

 

Artist: occupation

Is the artist known to have specialised in a particular form or medium, or did he or she work in several media? 

Could their occupation be more precisely described than by the general term ‘artist’?  Might any of the following descriptors be applied to the artist?

miniature painter
watercolour painter
sculptor
photographer
silhouettist
draughtsman
watercolour painter
printmaker
engraver
etcher
lithographer
caricaturist
medallist
wax modeller

 

For all of these specific occupations there are biographical dictionaries, e.g. D. Foskett, A Dictionary of Miniature Painters (1972)
Was the artist a member of any organizations? If so, are there any professional, vocational, or other such organisational records of his or her activity?
Was the artist honoured in his or her lifetime or posthumously? Are there formal records of such honours?
>> Case Study 10 – John Wallis by Godfrey Kneller, 1701
Is the artist known to have published any written works? Are any of his or her diaries, correspondence, contracts or sitter books available in published or manuscript form?
>> Case Study 1 – Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) by John Hayls
Was the artist a member of an artists’ benevolent society?  If so, are there any society records of the artist or his or her family?
Does the artist’s style and/or technique give any indication as to his or her identity?
>> Case Study 5 – – Sir Henry Charles Englefield 7th Bt by Thomas Phillips, 1815

 

Artist: nationality

Can the sitter be identified as British, English, Northern Irish, Scottish or Welsh? Can he or she be identified as of any other nationality?

Is the artist included in national dictionaries of artists, e.g. W.G. Strickland, Dictionary of Irish Artists, 2 vols (1911)

Is the sitter included in any dictionaries of biography or national dictionaries of artists, e.g. Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon (AKL)Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker?

>> Oxford DNB

Is the artist’s name included in the Getty Research Institute’s Union List of Artists Names (http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/ulan/index.html)?  If so, what sources are given for the name?  Do these give any indication of nationality?

 

Artist: oeuvre

Is there a sitter book entry for the portrait?
Does artist’s style offer any clues as to his or her identity?
Are the artist’s life dates known? Would the work fit with these?
What is the known status of the work? Is it the prime version? A variant version after the prime version? A copy by the artist? A studio copy? A copy by another artist?
Was the portrait done from life? (ad vivum)?