The National Inventory Research Project

The National Inventory Research Project is involved in researching and documenting pre-1900 European paintings in UK public collections. It aims to: Add new research to museum holdings of pre-1900 European paintings; Make up-to-date information about these collections more readily available. The 'NICE Paintings' database gives access to newly researched information about 8,300 pictures in public collections throughout the UK. The 'NICE Paintings' database is the outcome of the work of a committee of museum curators representing national and local museums across the UK and led by the National Gallery. The project is a partnership between the History of Art departments at Birkbeck, University of London and the University of Glasgow and the National Gallery. The database contains detailed catalogue information on 8,000 pictures, using established catalogue terms. You can search the whole database for words and names such as 'Spanish', 'portrait' or 'Monet', or for words and names in particular data fields such as artist, title, acquisition, description etc. 'NICE Paintings' is currently also searchable on the Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) using VADS's search procedures (http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/collections/NIRP/index.php).