UK's entire oil painting collection catalogued online

Your Paintings project has taken nearly 10 years to catalogue all of Britain's 211,861 publicly owned oil paintings

A Convoy, by Herbert Barnard John Everett, who has more paintings in the UK's publicly owned collection than any other artist. Photograph: National Maritime Museum

 

Herbert Barnard John Everett may not have been Britain's greatest painter, though his numerous studies of the sea, boats and decks are not entirely without merit, but he can lay claim to a remarkable artistic achievement - we own more of his oil paintings than any other artist.

The 1,058 publicly owned Everetts join 348 Turners, 273 Sickerts, 36 Freuds, 31 Hockneys and one Doris Brand on the list of 211,861 paintings that form the UK's entire collection of oil paintings in public ownership.

If Brand does not ring a bell then don't worry, you're not alone. "We haven't been able to find out who she is yet," admitted Andy Ellis of the Public Catalogue Foundation [PCF], apart from her being the last artist to join what has been a mammoth project.

The PCF announced on Thursday that it had succeeded, in partnership with the BBC, in its mission to put images of every publicly owned oil painting in the UK online - that means every painting, good or bad, on display or in stores, and whether owned by museums, galleries, councils or universities. Those held by police stations, zoos and a lighthouse are also included.

The PCF's director, Andrew Ellis, said no other country had ever embarked on such a project. "Art is meant to be seen, but 80% of the nation's paintings are not on view. They are either in stores or they're in buildings without public access." Until the PCF was created, the vast majority of paintings had not even been photographed. "This allows us to find out about and see all the oil paintings that we own."

A large network of researchers has helped the project succeed. "It has taken a huge amount of detective work," said Ellis. "Finding the museums is pretty straightforward, but in each county we've also had to find the universities, the colleges, the police stations, the town councils and so on to find out if they had paintings. The research has been exhaustive."

The PCF was created in 2003 by the businessman and diplomat Fred Hohler, who was frustrated at the lack of catalogues for many public collections. The photography began immediately, and concluded in October. In June 2011 the Your Paintings website, built by the BBC, was launched with 63,000 paintings and has gradually been added to until completion was announced.

It has thrown up some fascinating finds and statistics. Everett – who was painting in the early 19th century and preferred to be known as John rather than Herbert – has the largest number of publicly owned works thanks to the vast number he left to the National Maritime Museum. Coming a close second is Marianne North, whose stunning horticultural works are owned by Kew.

Ellis said the PCF's work would not stop as there are still nearly 30,000 paintings which are unattributed and it wants to correct that. It is also planning a similar exercise for publicly owned sculpture.

For now though the PCF plans to mark its achievement, and Christmas, with a fancy dress party next week for which it is encouraging staff to dress up as their favourite painting from the UK's public collection. What the director is going as remains to be seen. "I'm refusing to say," said Ellis.

Art uncovered

• The best office in the UK in terms of art might be that of Bristol University's archaeology department. Looking down on workers at their desks is a magnificent William Hogarth altarpiece that was painted in the 1750s for St Mary Redcliffe church. It was moved to the St Nicholas church museum in 1955 which subsequently became an office space.

• There are some surprising artists in the collection, not least Dwight D Eisenhower who, in 1952 - a year before he became president - painted a portrait of Field Marshal Montgomery which is now owned by the Government Art Collection.

• The project has thrown up good collections in surprising places. The Pier Art Centre in Orkney has an extremely fine collection of St Ives paintings by artists such as Alfred Wallis, Terry Frost and Ben Nicholson.

• There are famous faces in paintings which they may or may not be happy with. Sean Connery as a Life Model painted in 1952, owned by Edinburgh University, is one example. A bare-chested Eric Cantona and a Caesar-like Alex Ferguson are the stars of Michael Browne's Renaissance-inspired painting on long term loan to the National Football Museum.

• That is also the home of the last painting to be put online, Doris Brand's Boots (They Were Christopher's). Who is Doris Brand? The PCF would like to know.