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The Fine Art Library

The fine art library, which consists of over 1,000 books on art history, plus encyclopedias, thanks largely to a legacy donation by Donelson Farquhar Hoopes, former Director of the Portland Museum of Art. Holdings also include the following encyclopedias.

Thieme Becker Lexicon ... This is a remarkably comprehensive 37 volume German-language biographical dictionary of artists that was published between 1907 and 1950, with 148,180 biographies (General Dictionary of Artists from Antiquity to the Present), with a 6 volume supplement published between 1953 and 1960, with 47,229 biographies (General Dictionary of Artists of the 20th Century). These are facsimile editions of the originals.

Benezit Dictionary of Artists ... Originally published in French, this is an English-language 14-volume set, with more than 20,000 pages and over 170,000 entries.

AskArt ... Limited onsite access is available to the AskArt online database with millions of auction record starting in 1987, with prices for 350,000+ artists.