The Witt Library of the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, is one of the world's greatest art history libraries. It contains some 1.7 million illustrations of the work of painters, draughtsmen, and engravers of the Western tradition, all of whom have been indexed by name, dates, and nationality. This new second edition of the Checklist of Painters is a transcription of the Witt index as it currently exists. The names of 66,000 artists, their dates, and their nationality (or school) are reproduced in alphabetical order.

The Checklist of Painters is probably the most exhaustive work of its kind in existence; it now lists all painters (known by art historians) to have lived and worked from the year 1200 to 1994. It will be an important reference text in the art history collection of any public, academic, or professional library.