The Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) and the University of Glasgow are pleased to announce the launch of over 1000 newly researched paintings from leading national and regional collections as part of the National Inventory of Continental European Paintings (NICE Paintings) at: http://www.vads.ac.uk/collections/NIRP

Jockeys before the race, by Edgar Degas, 1878-9, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham

NICE Paintings is a unique online inventory that gives access to newly researched information and digital images for over 9000 pre-1900 European paintings in UK public collections.  The database was created in 2007 by the National Inventory Research Project (NIRP) based at the University of Glasgow.  It has been made available online for free educational use in collaboration with VADS at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA).

A Lady Taking Tea, by Jean-Siméon Chardin, 1735, Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow

The latest images include over 940 paintings from the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), Apsley House, and the Royal Academy of Art, London, and are the outcome of a project funded by the Kress Foundation. It also includes a further 210 records and images resulting from work at the Barber Institute, University of Birmingham, carried out by the Neil MacGregor Exhibition and Collections Research Scholar, and at the Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow.

This latest addition include works by many of the most famous and revered artists of all time such as Degas, van Dyck, Gauguin, Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Poussin, Rembrandt, Renoir, Rubens, and Toulouse-Lautrec, to name just a few.

Portrait of François Langlois, by Anthony van Dyck, 1634-7, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham

A current exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Research on Paintings: Technical Art History and Connoisseurship (till 22 September 2013), highlights 11 of the most interesting discoveries made during NIRP research on the old master paintings in their collection. Over the two years’ research 200 of the Museum’s paintings were re-attributed or re-identified, notably a previously unidentified work by the great Venetian artist Tintoretto, which is now know to be part of a set of three paintings depicting scenes from the legend of St Helena and the Holy Cross. Other important paintings have been newly and firmly attributed to Fuseli, Boucher and Snyders.

Andrew Greg, Director of the National Inventory Research Project at the University of Glasgow, says “we have been delighted to have been able to work over the years with so many hard-pressed curators and help them research and publicize their collections. We are continuing to seek funding to continue this valuable work. The project also creates links between academic art historians and museums and has helped many talented young researchers obtain curatorial posts in prestigious museums.”

VADS is proud to announce that the Zandra Rhodes Digital Study Collection is now available online at: zandrarhodes.ucreative.ac.uk

The collection was launched by Joanna Lumley at the Fashion and Textile Museum on Tuesday 26 March 2013. See the press release on the UCA website:

UCA homepage, photo by UCA student Hannah Kells.

Researchers and students from the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) have worked alongside Zandra Rhodes to painstakingly prepare, photograph, and catalogue 500 dresses and garments selected from the designer’s private archive, including pieces worn by icons such as Princess Diana, Jackie Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, and Diana Ross. The 500 garments can be accessed directly from the VADS website at http://www.vads.ac.uk/collections/ZR

Zandra Rhodes studied at one of UCA’s founder colleges, the Medway College of Design, and became UCA’s first Chancellor in 2010.

The website also provides a series of video interviews with Zandra Rhodes about the inspiration behind her favourite pieces and collections, as well as video tutorials with the designer and her expert staff demonstrating the production techniques used to create her handcrafted couture. The project has also provided online access to over 1000 pages of drawings of fashion and textile designs by Zandra Rhodes dating from 1969.

Zandra Rhodes Digital Study Collection: zandrarhodes.ucreative.ac.uk.

The Zandra Rhodes Digital Study Collection has been made available online for non-commercial use in learning, teaching, and research worldwide, and the project was funded by a grant from Jisc.

The spectacular orange and pink Fashion and Textile Museum in London was a fitting location for the launch. The Museum was founded by Zandra Rhodes in 2003 to showcase the work of contemporary fashion and textile designers.

Joanna Lumley launched the collection with some beautiful words about the designer: “I think that when we are all stone dead and everybody has forgotten our names, you won’t be forgotten…and it’s so important for students to be able to look at HOW things are done. And we all know that it’s the hard graft and the late nights and the stitching and the broken nail and the two hours of sleep…to see the work and the dreams behind everything, these images and your clothes are going to define a time.”