Art and Politics 

Catalogues Raisonnés
"All the works of an artist".  A scholar or a group of scholars documents every work of an artist's career.  Each work is pictured, with scholarly opinions, provenance (where the work has been), literature about the work, and spurious works (forgeries).  The first place to start when researching an artist or individual work. Not all artists have catalogues raisonnés.

Klipstein, August.   The graphic work of Käthe Kollwitz : complete illustrated catalogue / compiled by August Klipstein. 
Edition Mansfield Centere, CT : M. Martino, [1996?]  Lilly Library NE654.K6 K512 1996

Corpora
Like a catalogue raisonné, only for a single kind of object.   

Permanent Holdings Catalogs (of museums)

Detailed catalogs of a period or genre of art in a particular museum.  Like a catalogue raisonné, it will contain a collection of scholar's opinion on an object, conservation reports, provenance and literature (written about it).  If you know of the location of a work of art, check for permanent holdings catalogs.

Lubar, Robert S.  Dalí : the Salvador Dalí Museum collection / text by Robert S. Lubar.  Boston : Bulfinch Press, 2000.  Lilly Library N7113.D3 A4 2000