Public Domain & Fair Use ImagesThe following sites are recommended because they contain images either in the public domain, or approved for educational use and scholarly publication.
ARTstor Images for Academic Publishing (IAP) http://www.artstor.org/what-is-artstor/w-html/services-publishing.shtml The Images for Academic Publishing (IAP) program makes available publication-quality images for use in scholarly publications free of charge. Scholars at subscribing ARTstor institutions can access these images through the ARTstor Digital Library. To find IAP images, simply add "IAP" to your search criteria. Art.sy Education http://artsy.net/feature/artsy-education Artsy is a venue for discovering, collecting, and selling artwork from Medieval to contemporary, with an emphasis on the 20th and 21st centuries. Many images are part of the Art.sy "Open Access Image" program and are available for unrestricted use, or for use under certain conditions. The images available under this program will have a button marked “Download Image”. British Museum, London http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights.aspx Browse or search over 4,000 images from the museum collection. High-resolution images for educational use and academic publications may be downloaded for free. Flickr Commons http://www.flickr.com/commons/ Various cultural institutions have contributed content to the Flickr online photo management system. Contributors include: The Library of Congress; The Smithsonian; George Eastman House; Brooklyn Museum; Getty Research Institute; New York Public Library, and dozens more. Images in Flickr Commons have "no known copyright restrictions". Getty Trust Open Content Program http://www.getty.edu/about/opencontent.html 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. Los Angeles County Museum of Art http://www.lacma.org/image-library More than 20,000 high quality downloadable images of artworks from their encyclopedic collection believed to be in the public domain—available without restriction, and free of charge. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections The user can download high-resolution images for educational use and academic publications free of charge. National Gallery, London http://www.nationalgalleryimages.co.uk/Scholarly-Waiver.aspx National Gallery, London waives image reproduction charges for scholarly publications including academic books and journals, student theses and academic presentations or lectures. New York Public Library http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/ High-resolution downloads available for their public domain content. For use without restrictions. Rijksmuseum https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/rijksstudio High-resolution, public domain images are available for download for free and without restrictions. Victoria and Albert Museum, London http://collections.vam.ac.uk/ Over a million data records are searchable, although fewer images are available. Free high-resolution images available for educational use or academic publications. Walters Art Museum http://art.thewalters.org/ Thousands of high-resolution images available for download. Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Wikimedia Commons is a media repository with millions of image, audio, and video files. All files are in the public domain and are freely available for educational use. The files are contributed by the general public, using the same Wiki-technology as Wikipedia. Yale http://discover.odai.yale.edu/ydc/ Over 250,000 assets from across Yale's collections |
Website images permission of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, www.metmuseum.org
Chinese, Tikshna-Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, Ming dynasty (1368-1644), Gilt bronze
Suzuki Kiitsu, Morning Glories (detail), 19th C., Japanese, Six-panel folding screen; ink, color, & gold on gilded paper
Lorenzo Lotto, Venus and Cupid (detail), 16th C., Italian, Oil on canvas
Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970, American, Utah, mud, salt crystals, basalt rocks, earth, and water
Greek, Carnelian scaraboid, early 5th century B.C., Carnelian, gold
French Medieval from Limoges, Chasse of Champagnat, ca. 1150, Copper, engraved and gilt; champlevé enamel
Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Socrates (detail), 1787, French, Oil on canvas
Chinese, Tikshna-Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, Ming dynasty (1368-1644), Gilt bronze
Suzuki Kiitsu, Morning Glories (detail), 19th C., Japanese, Six-panel folding screen; ink, color, & gold on gilded paper
Lorenzo Lotto, Venus and Cupid (detail), 16th C., Italian, Oil on canvas
Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970, American, Utah, mud, salt crystals, basalt rocks, earth, and water
Greek, Carnelian scaraboid, early 5th century B.C., Carnelian, gold
French Medieval from Limoges, Chasse of Champagnat, ca. 1150, Copper, engraved and gilt; champlevé enamel
Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Socrates (detail), 1787, French, Oil on canvas
