A new online database will allow the public access to 8,000 European oil paintings.

The launch of NICE Paintings (the National Inventory of Continental European Paintings) on 21 November will be the first time many of the pre-1900 oil paintings have been accessible outside the museums and galleries in which they are housed.

A team of 25 researchers from the University of Glasgow and Birkbeck University of London, visited 200 museums from Penzance to Inverness in order to collate information and shed new light on 8000 European paintings, including copies and fakes as well as masterpieces.

The first stage of an ongoing project to document all 22,000 European oil paintings from the period 1200-1900 held in UK collections, has focused on lesser known collections which have benefited from more thorough research.

Project Director Andrew Greg, from the University of Glasgow’s Department of History of Art, said: “This project has been an innovative and productive partnership between the academic world and national and regional museums across the UK. By working with the museums for three years we have been able to uncover a lot of new information on the paintings that the museums themselves didn’t have the resources to unearth.

“Through the stories and interpretations of the paintings provided on the website the project addresses the lack of publicly accessible information about collections as well the decline in collection research in the UK.”

The launch of the database will be marked by an exhibition, Discoveries: New Research into British Collections, held at the National Gallery in London from 21 November 2007 – 10 February 2008. The exhibition features nine paintings, spanning 500 years, from institutions across the country.

The database can be viewed at the following weblink: http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/collections/nirp.html

Notes to editors

For more information please contact Kate Richardson in the University of Glasgow’s Media Relations Office on 0141 330 3683 or email K.Richardson@admin.gla.ac.uk

Image featured: Courtyard at the Rubenhuis, about 1645–75, attributed to Anton Gunther Gheringh (active 17th century; died 1668). Copyright Buckinghamshire County Museum (AYBCM 2007.58.5)

The research project has been awarded grants from the Getty Foundation, the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Research contributing to the database has also been enabled by grants from the Pilgrim Trust, made to 29 participating museums, and the Neil MacGregor Scholarship scheme through the National Gallery Trust, which supported ten scholars on the project.

First published: 14 November 2007

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