Welcome to the website for the Mathias J. Alten Catalogue Raisonné of oil paintings and watercolors produced by this remarkable artist during a career that spanned nearly four decades.

This free-access site documents over 1,900 known authentic works by Alten, and is an on-going project with additional entries made as they are received and authenticated. During his lifetime, it is estimated that this German-born artist completed close to 3,800 paintings. About sixty percent of that number were painted in his adoptive home state of Michigan where he was known as the "Dean of Michigan Artists". He however traveled extensively during his career painting both in Europe and in America, and exhibiting widely at major American art institutions. His life and career were well documented in the Grand Rapids Art Museum's 1998 major retrospective: Mathias J. Alten - Journey of an American Painter and its accompanying 175 page publication of the same name.

In Grand Rapids, Michigan, both Grand Valley State University and the Grand Rapids Art Museum have major holdings of paintings by this academic impressionist artist. At Grand Valley's DeVos Center on the downtown Pew Campus more than 40 paintings are on permanent public view in the George H. and Barbara Gordon Gallery. Selected Alten paintings are on public display as part of the permanent collection of the Grand Rapids Art Museum.

Acknowlegements:
I wish to acknowledge the assistance given me by the many private collectors, museum directors, art dealers, auctioneers, librarians, and others interested in seeing this project proceed. In particular, I thank Celeste Adams, Director of the Grand Rapids Art Museum and Kathleen Ferres, Registrar, for her patience and help in allowing me access to the extensive Mathias J. Alten Archival records held by the museum. I am additionally thankful to Henry Matthews, Director of Galleries and Collections, and his staff at Grand Valley State University, and to Alten family descendents, especially Mathias Alten's granddaughter, Anita M. Gilleo. I further gratefully note here that this project would not have been possible without the encouragement and support of George and Barbara Gordon, generous philanthropists and long-time collectors of Alten's paintings.

In reflection, no single person has been more helpful to me in my research than Mr. Kim L. Smith, Owner and Director of Perception Gallery in Grand Rapids. His support, passion for art, memory and profound knowlege of Alten's work has been the single-most important assett upon which I have drawn in developing this document.

James A. Straub