Philip de László Catalogue Raisonné

The de László Archive Trust was set up to research, catalogue and administer the paintings and archive of Hungarian portrait painter Philip de László. In 2014, the Trust engaged Keepthinking to help them transfer their database and previous website onto a new online resource, powered by Qi, which makes the artist’s oeuvre available online for the first time.

The goal of the trust is to publish the catalogue raisonné of Philip de László. Due to the breadth of the work of the Hungarian artist, it was decided to publish it online, with the first iteration being released in 2007. In 2014, the Trust briefed Keepthinking with implementing an improved collections management system and website design for the catalogue.

An online platform that unifies the previous catalogue and Trust websites into a single, mobile-responsive site, which not only acts as a repository for artworks but also functions as a vital tool to collect information about the location of missing paintings.

Working on information architecture first, we decided to unify the two existing websites as a single point of access. Points of focus were envisioning multiple ways of interacting with the catalogue, in order to cater for the needs of different audiences, from searching by keyword for users looking to browse the collection, to multiple search fields for more specific searches made by advanced users.

There are multiple ways to interact with the catalogue, which caters for different audiences; from showcasing a selection of masterpieces to browsing by categories. The single artwork page holds all known information about the work, including related images and other works. The description is pulled from Google Docs in real time. Lightbox: All images can be viewed in large and in more detail

The Catalogue Raisonné website has proved essential in supporting the digitisation work as it progresses, with new research being uploaded on an ongoing basis and materials being updated as more information about de László's oeuvre is discovered. This is the first time an authoritative assessment of Philip de Lászlo’s work has been made available online and it has proved to be a valuable resource for all those interested in the artist and his era.