The Witt Library of the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, is one of the world's greatest art history libraries. It contains some 1.7 million illustrations of the work of painters, draughtsmen, and engravers of the Western tradition, all of whom have been indexed by name, dates, and nationality. This new second edition of the Checklist of Painters is a transcription of the Witt index as it currently exists. The names of 66,000 artists, their dates, and their nationality (or school) are reproduced in alphabetical order. The Checklist of Painters is probably the most exhaustive work of its kind in existence; it now lists all painters (known by art historians) to have lived and worked from the year 1200 to 1994. It will be an important reference text in the art history collection of any public, academic, or professional library.

The Witt Library of the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, is one of the world's greatest art history libraries. It contains some 1.7 million illustrations of the work of painters, draughtsmen, and engravers of the Western tradition, all of whom have been indexed by name, dates, and nationality. This new second edition of the Checklist of Painters is a transcription of the Witt index as it currently exists. The names of 66,000 artists, their dates, and their nationality (or school) are reproduced in alphabetical order. The Checklist of Painters is probably the most exhaustive work of its kind in existence; it now lists all painters (known by art historians) to have lived and worked from the year 1200 to 1994.

This book sets a new standard as a work of reference. It covers British and Irish art in public collections from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the end of the nineteenth, and it encompasses nearly 9,000 painters and 90,000 paintings in more than 1,700 separate collections. The book includes as well pictures that are now lost, some as a consequence of the Second World War and others because of de-accessioning, mostly from 1950 to about 1975 when Victorian art was out of fashion. By listing many tens of thousands of previously unpublished works, including around 13,000 which do not yet have any form of attribution, this book becomes a unique and indispensable work of reference, one that will transform the study of British and Irish painting.

First Published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.