The Special Collections of the INHA Library

The Art and Archaeology Library, opened in 1908, integrated the collections of Jacques Doucet acquired earlier (for example, the collection of 18th-century sales catalogs of Baron Pichon, purchased in 1897). Acquisitions continued until 1914, including the collection of architectural and ornament prints from the 16th to 18th centuries from the Edmond Foulc collection (1826-1916). Enrichment then slowed for several decades, limited to donations from patrons. In 1958, Mrs. Jeanne Doucet made a significant financial donation that allowed the collections to be completed. From 1973, regular acquisitions resumed thanks to the bequest of Clotilde Brière-Misme. The printed collections of the Central Library of the National Museums were constituted to document the works preserved in the national museums. The strong lines of the collections are Western art from classical antiquity to the mid-19th century, Louvre Museum catalogs, museum catalogs, exhibition catalogs, sales catalogs, documentation from the Painting and Graphic Arts and Decorative Arts departments, sculpture, Greek and Roman antiquities.

Inheriting both the Art and Archaeology Library andthe central library of the national Museums (which aimed to document the collections of these museums), the collections of ancient printed works (over 20,000) today cover different fields of art history and archaeology, particularly festivity books, ornament collections, architectural books, travel stories and guides, art and museum collection catalogs, sales catalogs, 400 Chinese, Korean, and Japanese works on art, archaeology, drawing, and engraving. Other well-represented themes include gardens, fashion and costumes, typography, illustrated books. There is also a collection on Paris, including a set of maps.

The collection of ancient prints includes unbound prints (in sheets) and collections of prints (published as such by the publisher or assembled in composite collections). It was created at the inception of the Art and Archaeology Library and is closely associated with the collections of printed works and drawings, around themes of festivities, ornaments, and architecture. Additionally, a separate collection aims to document the various printmaking techniques complementing printmaking history works. The collections include interpretative engravings of artworks, architectural and city views, festival prints, decoration and ornament models, drawing models, etc. The sheet prints are grouped into thematic series that also include drawings: architectural and ornament prints, confraternity images, festivity and ceremony images, theater costumes and decors, reproductions and portraits, optical views, engraved vignettes cut from 15th and 16th-century books. The collection, mainly French, spans from the 16th to the 18th century, with the 18th century being the most represented.

The INHA maintains a remarkable collection of approximately 15,500 artistic prints from the 19th-21st centuries. Among the represented artists are Degas, Gauguin, Goya, Manet, Matisse, Toulouse-Lautrec, Redon, Van Gogh… The proofs gathered by Jacques Doucet are often exceptional due to the rarity of their states or the prestige of their provenance. The collection began with Jacques Doucet’s initial purchases from Alfred Strölin in 1906. A new momentum coincided with the recruitment of Noël Clément-Janin in September 1911, who aimed to create a 20th-century print collection reflecting the diversity of contemporary techniques and expressions. The goal was both to encourage young artists by commissioning works each year and to have very complete corpora for selected artists. Foreign artists who settled in France or stayed there are also well-represented in the collection: Richard Parkes Bonington, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Mary Cassatt, Ethel Mars, Maud Squire, Katherine Kimball. Since the 1990s, most donations have strengthened this focus for artists active from the 1930s to the present: Johnny Friedlaender, Terry Haass, Ellsworth Kelly, Vera Molnár, Takesada Matsutani, etc.

Autographs (over 50,000) and manuscripts (over 800) have been part of the Art and Archaeology Library’s collections since its inception. Once donated to the University of Paris, these sets were mainly enriched by donations, particularly through the Society of Friends of the Art and Archaeology Library (SABAA), before being joined by the manuscripts of the central library of the national Museums (over 400) and regularly increased until today. Correspondences (and some other unbound documents) were classified as “autographs” in the Art and Archaeology Library collections and then in the INHA library. The manuscripts ofthe central library of the national Museums also include correspondence files of curators, archaeologists, collectors, dealers, and artists. The acquisitions of manuscripts from the central library of the national Museums aimed to document the collections preserved in national museums. The manuscripts from both collections (INHA and the central library of the national Museums) include artists’ or art craftsmen’s account books, post-mortem inventories, collectors’ papers, collection inventories, correspondence collections, artists’ diaries and sketchbooks, travel stories, course transcriptions, manuscript works, etc. 

The first archival collections entered into the Art and Archaeology Library correspond to the papers left by critics, art historians, archaeologists, and scholars consulted by Jacques Doucet when creating the library. A second set comes from professors of the Institute of Art and Archaeology, as well as curators and critics. A third is composed of art historians’ collections, some of whom participated in the creation of the INHA. Collections of artists (architects, painters, engravers, sculptors), archaeologists, and galleries were added over time. The INHA now conserves nearly 200 archival collections or equivalents. Currently, the most numerous come from art historians: they include index cards, iconographic documentation, notes for courses and conferences, manuscripts, offprints, correspondence, etc. Collections from the art market tend to grow: they present a great diversity of producers (galleries, dealers, auctioneers) and types of documents (files, iconographic documentation, correspondences, sales files, sales catalogs, etc.). Numerous collections from archaeologists mainly concern the late 19th and 20th centuries and include visual documentation (surveys, site and object photographs, drawings, rubbings), notes, correspondence, and publication files. These collections are accessible respecting the legislation on private archives and copyright, and the provisions set by their respective donors.

The Archives of Art Criticism preserve many archival collections, photographs, audiovisual documents, and oral archives. The collections of members of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) have been prioritized so far, but the collection scope can be broader. Producers whose main activity is not strictly art criticism, but whose approach is similar, may fall within the acquisition scope: documentarians, art historians practicing criticism, exhibition curators, artists. The exhibition activity is also taken into account as an emanation of art criticism (art centers, biennials, galleries, associations, and organizations supporting art dissemination).

At the time of the creation of the Library of Art and Archaeology, drawings were acquired in two directions, similar to prints:

• On one hand, architectural, ornamental, and festive drawings (drawings of ancient documents, plans, elevations or sections of buildings, competition projects, representations of funerary processions or catafalques, ornamental drawings).
• On the other hand, drawings by “contemporary masters,” a collection entrusted to René-Jean by Jacques Doucet, which was sold on December 28 and 29, 1917.

For both groups, the primary goal was to document the creative processes.

Currently, the more than 5,000 drawings preserved in the patrimonial collections of the INHA library are not kept in a single collection: loose drawings are distributed within thematic series that also include prints, and albums and notebooks are dispersed within the manuscript collections. Preparatory drawings are also kept with modern prints, especially for artists whose engraved work is well-represented in the collection and whose workshop archives might have been acquired.

Many drawings are also present in the archives (in some cases, they have been extracted for preservation reasons): drawings made during excavations, travels, decoration projects, etc.

Two small collections stand out:

• Theater costume drawings – this collection is closed and digitized, available online;
• “Artists’ drawings” – this collection was created in the 2000s by grouping drawings scattered in other themes or from new acquisitions; it includes more than half of the preparatory drawings for building decorations, previously classified under architecture, as well as drawings for the magazine La Plume.

The drawings mainly date from the 18th and 19th centuries and were almost all created by French artists, architects, ornament designers, archaeologists, and art historians.

The photography collection today includes about 750,000 original photographs and postcards. It was started in 1905 by Jacques Doucet himself, who entrusted it in the following years to Louis-Eugène Lefèvre. Thus, the core of the collection was created, stored in beige cloth-covered cardboard boxes and referred to as the Photothèque. This collection, labeled “Photothèque,” comprises a little over 130,000 captioned photographs, mounted on cardboard and classified by thematic series in the 1930s (Archaeology, Architecture, Decorative Arts, Drawings, Illuminated Manuscripts, Paintings, Sculptures) under the direction of Clotilde Brière-Misme. It has not been expanded since the 1990s.

Under the label “Phot” are gathered other photographs of the collection, acquired alongside the Photothèque. This includes various sets, albums, and lots of photographs on paper or glass (labeled “Plaques Phot“), as well as new acquisitions. The “Phot” label notably includes part of the phototheque of the Institute of Art and Archaeology, created by Maxime Collignon at the Sorbonne in the 1890s, the collection of black and white prints from the Giraudon agency (1877-1990s), the glass plates of Pierre Gusman (1862-1941), known for his works on Pompeii, and the photographic archives of Jean-Michel and Nicole Thierry (1950s-2017), specialists in Armenian, Cappadocian, and Caucasian art. Among the most well-known photographs in this collection are a complete set of John Henry Parker’s archaeological photographs in 36 volumes (1864-1877), the personal albums of Jane and Marcel Dieulafoy containing their photographs of Persia, Spain, and France (1880s-1910), and the most complete collection of artist studio views by Edmond Bénard (1880s-1890s).

All these photographs are described in Calames, either as collections or individually. Many other original photographs can be found in the library’s other collections, such as autographs, archives, manuscripts, and printed books. The main albums of original prints preserved among these can be identified and found in the library catalog by searching for the term “photographic album.”

The origin of the invitation card collection is not documented. However, it appears to be old, as some cards come from Jacques Doucet. It has been described as such since the 1930s and has been supplemented by invitations received by the institution’s staff. Additionally, many cards have been extracted from archival collections (Roger Marx collection, Raymond Cogniat collection), and some collections remain rich in invitation cards (notably but not exclusively artist collections: Kiyoshi Hasegawa, Johnny Friedlaender, Maurice Besset, André Warnod, etc.).

This collection, without chronological or geographical limits, includes nearly 100,000 cards and brochures produced for exhibitions by public institutions and galleries, covering visual arts, archaeology, and history. It also includes greeting cards from organizations and correspondence related to their internal affairs (address changes, closures).

The collection is very rich for Paris from 1900 to 1930, and to a lesser extent for France and the rest of the 20th century.

As a research library, the INHA library is particularly focused on the development of knowledge and the enrichment of its patrimonial collections. The policy defined in consultation with representatives of research, archives, libraries, and museums aims to provide materials to art historians and archaeologists in the field of Western art, from classical antiquity to the present day.