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.