LibGuides: Art Studies: Websites

Copyright Friendly Art Collections

The following collections are available online and consist of items in the public domain, or under copyright, but with Creative Commons license designations. Images in the public domain are freely available for unrestricted use. Works with a Creative Commons license can be reused under certain restrictions. Be mindful of these rules as you choose images to incorporate into your projects.

Art UK
Collection of 200,000+ oil paintings from local and national museum collections in the United Kingdom. The site is a joint initiative between the BBC, the Public Catalogue Foundation, and participating museums and collections.
Europeana Art
Europeana Art introduces you to artists and artworks from across Europe. Explore over 1 million paintings, drawings, prints and other artworks from European public and private archives, galleries and museums, ranging from ancient Roman sculpture to modern design.
Getty Open Content Program
The Getty makes available, without charge, all available digital images to which the Getty holds the rights or that are in the public domain to be used for any purpose. No permission is required.
IDEAS Asia Project
This project seeks to tap the Asian art and items of visual culture that exist on selected ASIANetowork college campuses and help faculty who are teaching about Asia integrate these resources into their courses. Includes many items from Eckerd's own collection of Asian art, held within the Visual Arts Department and the Eckerd Library.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Searchable online collection of art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
Contains 76,000+ works from the MoMA, all available online and enhanced search filters.
Rijksmuseum
One of the world’s leading museums in Amsterdam has a ground-breaking new online presentation of 125,000 works in its collection.
Smithsonian Institution
Search over 13.3 million records of museum objects, archives and library materials including more than 2.5 million online media files.

Suggested Websites

A Timeline of Art History
Presented by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the timeline covers art from 8,000 B.C. through present.
archINFORM
International architecture database.
National Gallery of Art Images
NGA Images is a repository of digital images of the collections of the National Gallery of Art. On this website you can search, browse, share, and download images. A standards-based reproduction guide and a help section provide advice for both novices and experts.
Getty Research Portal
Access digitized art history publications, rare books, and related literature.
Art History Resources
Documents of 20th Century Latin American and Latino Art
The ICAA Documents of 20th-century Latin American and Latino Art digital archive provides access to primary sources and critical documents tracing the development of twentieth-century art in Latin America and among Latino populations in the United States.
Resources in Art and Architecture on the Web
An extensive compilation of art and architecture sites available on the web, maintained by Brown University's Art and Architecture Librarian Karen Bouchard. Includes image resources, blogs, museum sites, organizations, and much more.

Special Collections - Local

Special Collections - National

American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago History Museum, Digital Collection: Costume and Textile Collection
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Searchable online collection of art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Museum of Modern Art, New York
The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Philadephia Museum of Art

Special Collections - International

The British Museum, London
Tate Modern, London
The Louvre, Paris
Musee d'Orsay, Paris
The Uffizi Gallery, Florence
The Vatican Museums, Vatican City, Rome
The Prado Museum, Madrid
Asia Art Archive
"AAA is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading public collections of primary and secondary source material about contemporary art in Asia."
Art UK
Collection of 200,000+ oil paintings from local and national museum collections in the United Kingdom. The site is a joint initiative between the BBC, the Public Catalogue Foundation, and participating museums and collections.