A Wildenstein Index Number refers to an item in a numerical system published in catalogues by Daniel Wildenstein, a scholar of Impressionism, who published catalogues raisonnés of artists such as Claude Monet, Édouard Manet and Paul Gauguin through his family business, Wildenstein & Company.
[1][2][3] An example is the Monet: Catalogue Raisonné (ISBN 978-3-8228-8559-8), which is a four volume set published in 1996 with 2,580 illustrations in 1,540 pages.
The original version of this set was a five-volume black-and-white edition that has become collectible at costs of approximately U.S.$10,000 because it was originally only available to large museums or major universities' art departments.
[2][note 1] Although most of the catalogues are published with Daniel as the author, other members of the five-generation family business were also responsible for promulgating this numbering system.
Daniel's father Georges Wildenstein published catalogues raisonnés for Jean-Honoré Fragonard and Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin in the 1960s.