ARTstor is pleased to announce the completion of an important collaboration with the Frick Art Reference Library. This collaboration has focused on the Frick Library’s renowned Negative Collection, an archive of approximately 60,000 large-format negatives that is prized by scholars as a unique visual record of lesser-known and largely unpublished European and American paintings. These paintings are often documented with invaluable, unpublished information and scholarly opinions assembled under the Frick’s auspices. The Negative Collection is the product of both ongoing acquisitions programs and dedicated photographic campaigns sponsored by the Frick Library.
Two key archives from the Negative Collection are now available as part of the ARTstor Digital Library. The first archive consists of nearly 9,000 large-format, glass plate negatives produced in the early decades of the twentieth century by the Italian photographic firm of Sansoni, over 3,000 of which can be viewed in ARTstor. The Sansoni archive richly documents fresco cycles and other forms of architectural decoration in many remote sites throughout Italy, including significant works that have since suffered irreversible damage or destruction.
To find these images, from the ARTstor Welcome page click on “Image Gallery.” Choose “Sansoni Archive” to view all the images in this collection.
The second archive consists of nearly 10,000 large-format glass plate and nitrate negatives, as well as polyester “interpositives,” produced by the archives of the firm A.C. Cooper, Photographers, London, and related photographic archives. These photos principally document paintings as they passed through art auction galleries in London in the 1920s and 1930s, often in transit from one private collection to another. Over 4,000 images from this collection are available through ARTstor.
To find these images, from the ARTstor Welcome page click on “Image Gallery.” Choose “A.C. Cooper and Related Archives” to view all images in this collection.