This Online Catalogue presents a scholarly overview of The Leiden Collection, the remarkable collection of Dutch paintings and drawings assembled by Thomas S. Kaplan and his wife, Daphne Recanati Kaplan. Launched in January 2017 with Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. as editor, the Catalogue has continued to grow, incorporating new acquisitions and expanding its number of scholarly entries and essays. The 2nd edition encompassed content published between 2017 and early 2020. The 3rd edition, archived in December 2023, was coedited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. The current 4th edition of the Online Catalogue is co-edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Elizabeth Nogrady, with the support of Caroline Van Cauwenberge.
The core of the Catalogue is the compendium of entries on the individual Artworks in The Leiden Collection. Each entry includes high-resolution images, along with a comprehensive record of the work’s bibliographic references, exhibition history, and provenance. Each entry also includes a technical summary that documents the materials and techniques used by the artist, as well as any later treatments to the object that have occurred over time. The technical research presented in the Catalogue is based on examination reports, treatment reports, analytical reports, and technical images that are kept on file at The Leiden Collection. Key terms that appear in entries and technical summaries may be found in the Glossary. In addition, each entry includes a set of Iconclass terms, which classify works of art according to subject areas, themes, and motifs. This interactive research tool may be used dynamically across the Catalogue.
The Catalogue also includes extensive Biographies of the artists that detail their relationships to one other, and Essays that focus on topics germane to the artists and major themes in the Collection. It also contains more than twenty Videos about artworks, technical information, and thematic topics pertaining to The Leiden Collection.
New entries, biographies, essays, and videos are published periodically. A permanent record of all published material is available in the Catalogue’s Archive. New archived versions of previously published biographies, entries, and essays will be generated when a substantive change to the narrative occurs. Subsequent editions of the Catalogue will be archived every three years.
The scholarly entries and essays in the Catalogue have been written by more than 30 internationally renowned art historians. Similarly, the technical examination reports and summaries have been prepared by a number of leading conservators. Short biographies of all contributors are available on the Authors page.
Leiden Viewer
The Leiden Viewer, accessible with each of the entries, allows the viewer to explore high-resolution images of the painting or drawing through its deep-zoom functionality and different viewing modes. For a selection of entries, the Leiden Viewer also contains technical images, including x-radiographs and infrared reflectography.
The Leiden Viewer uses IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework) technology, which allows for the sharing of digital image data across various IIIF-compatible tools, such as The Universal Viewer and Mirador. Every image in the Leiden Viewer contains an IIIF manifest carrying information needed to display the digital image. The IIIF manifest can be accessed by clicking on the IIIF logo in the Leiden Viewer. By copying and pasting this manifest into any IIIF-compatible viewer, the user can compare images in the Leiden Collection with artworks from institutions around the world. The manifest for all artworks contained in The Leiden Collection Online Catalogue can be accessed by entering the following link into the Universal Viewer: https://www.theleidencollection.com/iiif/presentation/v2/collection/manifest/.