LibGuides: Art History: Finding Images

Can I use that image?

When you are working on a project for a class, you can include other people's images because it falls under part of copyright law know as Fair Use. Outside of your course work it is a different story. A couple of resources are listed below but for more information about copyright and the visual arts, you can look here.

Can I Use that Picture?
A great page from website by a Professor of Communication.
Visual Resources Association copyright page
The Visual Resources Association has produced several sets of guidelines and tools related to images and copyright.

Art Image Collections on the Web

Europeana Collections
Explore artworks, artifacts, books, films and music from European museums, galleries, libraries and archives. Some content requires subscription.
Google Arts & Culture
Features content from over 1200 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute
Library of Congress Digital Collections
The Library of Congress provides digital access to extensive collections of photographs, maps, manuscripts, sound recordings and more.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
The Met's Timeline of Art History pairs essays and works of art with chronologies and tells the story of art and global culture through the collection
NGA Images
NGA Images is a repository of digital images of the collections of the National Gallery of Art.
New York Public Library's Digital Collections
NYPL Digital Collections is a living database with new materials added every day, featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more.
The Web Gallery of Art
The Web Gallery of Art is a searchable database of European fine arts and architecture (3rd-19th centuries), currently containing over 48.600 reproductions.
Yale CCD
Cross Collection Discovery (CCD) provides a way to search across Yale's collections of art, natural history, books, and maps, as well as photos, audio, and video documenting people, places, and events that form part of Yale's institutional identity and contribution to scholarship.Not all content available through Discover Yale Digital Content is unrestricted.

Images in Press Collections

Image Databases in the Library

ARTstor on JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive database of art images to view, analyze, and save for use in presentations.
Note: You will need to create a personal user account to access Artstor. If you have an existing JSTOR account, you can use that by linking it to Artstor.

Adam Matthew Explorer This link opens in a new window
Millions of primary source documents from across the world spanning the 15th - 21st centuries.

Images from Museum Collections

Many museums offer online access to their collections. Try these if you are looking for a particular work from a particular museum:

American Folk Art Museum e-Museum Collection
American Folk Art Museum collection includes more than eight thousand works of art from self-taught artist from around the world.
Museum of Modern Art The Collection
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is often identified as one of the largest and most influential museums of modern art in the world. The evolving collection contains almost 200,000 works of modern and contemporary art. More than 89,000 works are currently available online.
Penn Museum Online Collections
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is home to Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Mediterranean, from the very first cities of the Middle East to the pharaohs of ancient Egypt; from early Mexico to the lives of Native American communities today.
PMA Online Collection Search
The Philadelphia Museum of Art offers a wide overview of art and objects from around the world, from ancient times to today.
Tate Modern Art & Artists
The Tate Modern is a British international modern and contemporary art museum. Their multimedia site allows you to explore their collection, learn art terms, listen to podcasts, and dig deeper into the stories behind the art and artists in their collection.
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Online Collection
This website represents Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s diverse collection, spanning thirty centuries of historic and contemporary design.
The Barnes Foundation
The mission of the Barnes is to promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts and horticulture. On display are some of the world’s most important impressionist, post-impressionist, and modern paintings alongside African masks, native American jewelry, Greek antiquities, and decorative metalwork.