The collections of the Ecole nationale supérieure des beaux-arts available online

24/5/08 — Internet — Paris, Ensba — The collections of the Ecole nationale supérieure des beaux-arts are made up of works from the Royal Academies, of works produced by students from the 19th and the first half of the 20th century(notably the Prix de Rome winners) and of various private donations, essentially drawings and engravings. This represents a holding of over 450,000 works, in all kinds of techniques (including photography and manuscripts).

The database for these holdings, built up over several years and which was formerly available in-house, has just been published on Internet. Searches can be done by combining several criteria; a list is then provided for each one.
Of course, only (so to speak) 69,000 works are available online today. But these obviously represent the most important ones, mainly drawings, paintings and sculptures, as well as an extensive number of photographs. Although they are not all illustrated, there is no doubt that the database will continue to grow until it is complete. This one already constitutes an invaluable tool for art historians – one more which is now available on the net.
We should also like to point out that the works in the Bibliothèque of the Ensba are listed on another database, and also available online here.