How can I find biographical information about an artist?
- Some websites we recommend: Ask Art and Artcyclopedia.
- Consult WATSONLINE, the online catalog of the Museum’s libraries, to identify citations for materials on the artist you are looking for. You can then look for these titles at a local library.
- Search the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History on the Museum’s website.
- Consult appropriate titles from this selection of basic art biographical resources (there are many others):
- ALLGEMEINES LEXIKON DER BILDENDEN KUNSTLER (Thieme-Becker)
- ALLGEMEINES LEXIKON DER BILDENDEN KUNSTLER DES XX. JAHRHUNDERTS (Vollmer)
- ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES MASTER INDEX
- DICTIONARY OF ARTISTS (Benezit, 2006; earlier editions in French)
- DICTIONARY OF ART (Oxford)
- DICTIONARY OF WOMEN ARTISTS (Petteys)
- INDEX TO ARTISTIC BIOGRAPHY
- OXFORD ART ONLINE (subscription)
- OXFORD DICTIONARY OF ART AND ARTISTS
- WHO WAS WHO IN AMERICAN ART
- WHO’S WHO IN AMERICAN ART
For research assistance on American art and artists visit Ask Joan of Art on the Smithsonian American Art Museum website.