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Research Library

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Photo:Research Library

Introduction

Since the National Museum of Western Art was established in 1959, we have collected, for over half a century, research materials to support studies of art works and the planning of exhibitions and other activities. The National Museum of Western Art’s Research Library was opened on March 15, 2002, to make the rich collection of scholarly resources resulting from those efforts open to external museum curators and researchers and to contribute to promoting research on the history of Western art and art museum activities in Japan.

The Research Library engages in collecting materials in the field of Western art from the late Middle Ages to the first half of the twentieth century. The collection of books, which now totals 55,000 volumes, focuses on catalogues of the collections of art museums in Europe and America, exhibition catalogues, artists’ catalogues raisonnés, and collections of essays by art historians. The library holdings also include 3,000 periodical titles (including about 350 to which we continue to subscribe) and 35 microfilm or microfiche items. In recent years, we have actively added online scholarly resources such as JSTOR and Art Sales Catalogues Online. Since May of 2014, we have also participated in the Art Discovery Group Catalogue, a joint project participated in by art libraries throughout the world, to contribute to the establishment of research infrastructure in the art history field.

Materials in the Collection

Books and Periodicals

Focusing on Western art from the late Middle Ages to the first half of the twentieth century, the collection includes monographs, catalogues raisonnés, exhibition catalogues, art museum collection catalogues, and periodicals. They can searched using the NMWA Research Library Catalogue.

Auction Catalogues

These holdings include auction catalogues from Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Hôtel Drouot (Paris), and other auction houses. Those catalogues are mainly from the 1960s on for auctions in the Old Masters, Impressionists, and Modern and Contemporary Art categories held in major cities in Europe and America (including London, New York, and Amsterdam). The auction catalogues have not been entered into our library catalogue. To access one of them, please apply with the necessary information (auction house name, city where the auction was held, category, date held, etc.).

Large Collection (microfilm, microfiche, and digital versions)

Our Large Collection in art history and adjacent fields includes micro-formatted versions of the Biblioteca Cicognara (Vatican Library), Collection des pièces sur les beaux-arts (1673-1808): dite Collection Deloynes (Paris National Library), Flugschriften des frühen 16. Jahrhunderts (Collection of Reformation Era Pamphlets), The Museum of Modern Art Artists Files, and The Witt Library, Courtauld Institute of Art, London. In digital resources, we have contracted to use Art Sales Catalogues Online (catalogue of auction sales of art from 1600-1900). For details on each, see our “Pathfinder—Guide to Scholarly Resources for Western Art Research.”

Online Scholarly Resources

The library has signed up to use a variety of online information sources: databases indexing periodicals, including Art Index Retrospective, Art & Architecture Source, ARTbibliographies Modern (ABM), and International Bibliography of Art (IBA), and full-text databases, including Art Sales Catalogues Online, JSTOR, Grove Art Online, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, and artnet Price Database Fine Art and Design. For details on each, see our “Pathfinder—Guide to Scholarly Resources for Western Art Research.”

Artist Files

We collect ephemera on Western artists from the late Middle Ages to the first half of the twentieth century, including articles clipped from newspapers and magazines, flyers, press releases, pamphlets, leaflets, invitations, and picture postcards, organizing them by artist. To search for files on a particular artist on our library catalogue, input the artist’s name (in roman letters) and “artist file” and click on search. (Sample search term: “gogh artist file.”)

Works in the NMWA Collection File

This file contains materials on works in the NMWA collection, including copies of documents and articles clipped from newspapers and magazines, organized by the title of the work. (The file includes some archival materials, including documents, letters, and photographs.) Please apply in advance to use materials in this file.

Letters to Hayashi Tadamasa, 1884-1906 (on deposit)

Since 2016, the group of letters to Hayashi Tadamasa has been on deposit at our library by the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties. They include about 950 items, such as letters to Hayashi Tadamasa, an art dealer who spurred on the Japonisme boom, and related materials. They can be searched and read from the website “Collection of Hayashi Tadamasa related letters and reference materials.”Open in a different window Those materials are available through that website; if you wish to see the actual documents, please apply in advance.