The Baltic-Latvian Family Tree of Artists’ Dictionaries in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, between Amateurism and ‘High’ Art History
The Baltic-Latvian Family Tree of Artists’ Dictionaries in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, between Amateurism and ‘High’ Art History

Summary/Abstract: The creation of biographical dictionaries is a field where professional art history often encounters amateurism, attempts to eradicate it and at the same time profits from its contributions. The history of reference works on artists of and from the historical Baltic provinces in general and the present Latvia in particular, since the nineteenth century, is not a linear development from primitive to increasingly comprehensive forms. It would be more accurate to describe it as a family tree where all members have some common features, but every successive generation has been raised with limited access to family archives and fragmentary knowledge of its actual lineage, as well as containing side branches and obscure elements.

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