Showcasing Navigating.art's sophisticated versioning system — “Gauguin: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings” from the Wildenstein Plattner Institute
On July 1, 2024, the Wildenstein Plattner Institute (WPI) published the final installment of the catalogue raisonné of the paintings of Paul Gauguin, the celebrated post-Impressionist artist. Spearheaded by the renowned Gauguin scholar Sylvie Crussard, the newly published research focuses on 105 artworks executed between 1889 and 1891 in Paris and Brittany, France. These artworks represent a critical transformational period in the artist's development and are an invaluable addition to the online catalogue raisonné.
The first edition of the WPI's digital catalogue raisonné was published in 2021 and documented the paintings created during Gauguin's first voyage to Tahiti in 1891, his brief return to Paris, his final voyage to Tahiti, and his time in the Marquesas Islands, where he died in 1903. Adding the preceding "Breton period" artworks enriches our understanding of the second half of the artist's career.
Gauguin's early career, including artworks from 1873 to 1888, is documented in two print volumes from 2002 by Daniel Wildenstein, which are available as free digital books on the WPI website. Now, this digital publication of the Breton period artwork heralds the complete updated documentation — all available online — of Paul Gauguin's entire oeuvre in paint.
Advancing scholarship through digital accessibility and innovation
Integrating resources to increase global accessibility
The Gauguin digital catalogue raisonné was created and published using the Navitgating.art platform. Each artwork is accompanied by a high-quality image, tombstone information (including title, date, material, dimensions, and signature), provenance, exhibition history, and bibliography. One distinctive feature of the Navigating.art platform is the ability to publish a stable link from each of these entries to scanned materials in the WPI's archive.
Exhibitions list with VIEW links to archival resources associated with Paul Gauguin’s Vahine no te tiare (1891).
This feature enables researchers to directly integrate invaluable primary source information into their cataloguing. It also ensures that anyone with a computer can access a wealth of information seamlessly, free of charge.
View of digitized archival resource Exposition d'œuvres récentes de Paul Gauguin linked to the exhibition history of Paul Gauguin’s Vahine no te tiare (1891).
Caitlin Sweeney, senior director of digital strategy and publications at the WPI, emphasized the importance of this functionality to the integrity of the research, as well as to the WPI's mission to make art historical resources accessible. "A good catalogue raisonné lays the foundation for future scholarship and invites greater scrutiny and new questions. By sharing as much information as possible, we cultivate an evidence-based approach to our work."
Publishing updated editions with a sophisticated versioning system
A major technical challenge posed by WPI staff was the demand to continuously edit and add new research internally for already-published paintings in preparation for re-publishing the entire digital catalogue raisonné as an updated edition.
In response, Navigating.art developed sophisticated privacy and versioning features, which enable researchers to control what is visible to the public and when. Specific pieces of information can be marked as public or private on a granular level – whether a single step in the provenance or the inclusion of an artwork in a certain exhibition. Information marked "private" won’t be visible to the public.
Information on a previously published artwork can develop internally over time as new research is discovered or revisions are made; however, these changes will not impact the appearance of the original digital publication until the artwork is officially "published." A new timestamped version of the public data is created whenever an artwork is published or republished.
The user interface of the internal database mimics the final rendering of the public display as closely as possible. This functionality, along with the ability to generate reports and review the publication in a "preview environment," represents Navigating.art’s solutions to facilitate the review and publication of such large data.
Sweeney described these features as "critical for developing a publication workflow in a digital environment.” She continued, “We can conduct thorough, ongoing research, and when we are ready, fact-check and edit, all while maintaining a reliable, public-facing edition of the digital publication." As the WPI's catalogue raisonné projects continue to evolve, this feature will support the balance between authoritative, published data and dynamic research and scholarship.
Catalogues raisonnés for the digital age
The publication of Paul Gauguin’s catalogue raisonné represents a significant achievement in digital art documentation. By combining meticulous scholarship with advanced digital tools, the WPI sets a new standard for how art history can be preserved, studied, and appreciated in the digital age.
Learn more about Paul Gauguin and his legacy by visiting the catalogue raisonné.