The aim of the the Netherlands Institute for Art History / Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD) is to collect visual and written documentation about Western - and particularly Dutch - fine and applied art from the late Middle Ages to the present day and to make this information accessible . The RKD website offers a number of useful databases including the Index of Artists' Names. This online database contains over 150.000 records on Western artists dating from the Middle Ages to the present day. Text fields (including biographical data) are in Dutch. The Index of Artists' Names covers the international field of modern and contemporary art pretty well.
To access the Index of Artists' Names follow this link:
http://website.rkd.nl/Databases/RKDartists