Research Guides: Fine Art Guide: Image Collections

Image Collections

A & A, Courtauld Institute of Art
Images of art and architecture from the collections of the Courtauld Institute. This site offers quizzes, polls and a discussion forum where visitors can contribute ideas and debates on visual culture.
African and Asian Visual Artists Archive
Images of contemporary visual art by artists of African and Asian descent working in the UK since the post-war period. This site includes a learning index that contains VAD teaching and learning resources written by lecturers and authors who are specialists in their fields.
American Museum of Natural History Digital Special Collections | Browse Collections
Archive of African Artists
The National Museum of African Art Library contains individual artist files consisting of gallery brochures, exhibition announcements, and invitations, price lists, resumes, press releases, reviews, and newspaper cuttings. The site also provides a link to Smithsonian Institution Libraries.
ARC
The Art Renewal Center offers an online museum of art from the Renaissance through the nineteenth century. The ARC also posts the winners of the ARC Salon exhibition; this Salon highlights contemporary representational art.
Art History Resources on the Web
A directory to art historical sites. The site provides coverage from prehistoric to contemporary art and architecture in a list of international museums and their links as well as research resources. On-line articles and books are also available to the users through the site as well as listings for scholarship opportunities.
Art Images for College Teaching
AICT includes a wide array of art historical imagery ranging from prehistoric to the twentieth century, with particular emphasis on images of architectural and archaeological sites. The site offers a textbook concordance which allows its users to connect each image to illustrations in the textbooks used by their institution.
Artcyclopedia
This site allows the visitor to search for a particular artist or title and discover information about the artist's bibliography, links to museums that hold objects by a particular artist, images of a specific work of art, web links, and online articles pertaining to the subject matter. Other resources within the site include an Actual Sizer for the display of art in its "real life" dimensions as well as a glossary.
Atlas
The official database of the Musée du Louvre, which includes label copy and images of each work. A search engine provides multiple search strategies (in French only).
ArtServe
This image site features art and architecture images primarily from the Mediterranean Basin, India, Cambodia, and Japan. However, the site also includes a wealth of Northern European imagery.
Bridgeman
Access to small image files with watermarks. Download larger images to subscribers only. Contact Elizabeth Meyer elizabeth.meyer@uc.edu if interested it this collection for UC Libraries.
D’Art: Internet Art Database
An excellent resource for researching the working artist, this commercial database includes information from artists, collectors, and dealers, including images of works for sale.

DYABOLA
DYABOLA (the electronic version of "Archaologische")
Coverage: 1956 - present

Fine Art Museums of San Francisco
Images from the collections of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (the de Young museum and the Legion of Honor).
Getty (Images from the Museum's Collection)
"Records for objects in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, which includes Greek, Etruscan, and Roman antiquities; European paintings, drawings, sculpture, and decorative arts from the Middle Ages to the end of the 19th century; medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts; and photographs from the 19th century to the present."
Google Art Project
High resolution images of some of the most famous paintings from the Tate Britain, Uffizi, National Gallry, MoMA, MET, ect.
Iowa Digital Libary : Arts & Literature
John C. and Susan L. Huntington Archive of Buddhist and Related Art
A digital database of art and architecture in Asia, ranging from about 2500 B.C.E. to the present, are included from the countries of India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar (Burma), China, and Japan. The site features online exhibitions from practicing artists in China, India, Japan and Tibet as well as eduational resources.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Millions of photographs of fine and popular prints and drawings, posters, and architectural and engineering drawings.
Luna Commons
Includes Cornell's Political Americana Collection, the Estate Project for Artists with AIDS, gravestones from the American Antiquarian Society, an Indonesian art collection, Catena historic gardens and landscapes from the Bard Graduate Center.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Searchable database which includes the entire collections of the Department of European Paintings and the Department of American Paintings and Sculpture, as well as highlights from each of the museum’s other curatorial departments. The database is searchable by artist, period, or style. The site also features a chronological timeline of art history and several educational resources.
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Updated weekly, the MFA’s database contains images of the objects in the museum’s collection. An advanced search aids in searching, and works are also categorized by museum department.
Museum of Online Museums
An eclectic collection of links to museums, galleries, and exhibitions. Links to sites with images of cereal boxes, manholes covers, candy cigarette boxes, etc.
National Gallery of Art (UK)
This online database includes the entire collection of the British National Gallery’s permanent collection and long-term loans, providing illustrations and descriptions of all objects.
National Gallery of Art (USA)
An online database of the collection of the National Gallery of Art, searchable by artist, title, subject, expanded search, provenance, or accession number.
National Portrait Gallery (USA)
This online database provides access to more than 80,000 portrait records. Separate searches provide access to the NPG collection, a biographical search, and the Catalog of American Portraits, which includes portraits in both public and private collections in the US and abroad.
New York Public Library Digital Library Collections

Oxford Art Online
Oxford Art Online is an authoritative¸ inclusive¸ and easily searchable online art resource. Through a single gateway users can access-and simultaneously cross-search-an expanding range of Oxford's art reference works: Grove Art Online¸ the Benezit Dictionary of Artists¸ the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics¸ The Oxford Companion to Western Art¸ and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms¸ as well as many specially commissioned articles and bibliographies available exclusively online.

Open Art Images
High quality art images from other museums that are available in one search engine.
Rembrandt Database
Smithsonian
African Art, American Art, European Art, Islamic Art,
Latino and Latin American Art, Photography
Tate
Database for the entire collection of the Tate, which encompasses British Art since 1500 and international modern art. Searchable by artist, subject, title, and advanced search features. The site also includes a glossary of art terms.
VADS
VADS is the online resource for visual arts. It has provided services to the academic community for 12 years and has built up a considerable portfolio of visual art collections comprising over 100,000 images that are freely available and copyright cleared for use in learning, teaching and research in the UK.
Vincent Van Gogh Gallery
Site states that it contains all Vincent van Gogh's works and letters--a complete, online catalogue raisonné of Van Gogh's oeuvre.
Visual Collections
Contains over 300,000 images from more than 30 collections. These images fall under several subject matters including cartography, fine art, architecture, and photography. The site offers several features for viewing, including a zoom tool and multiple image viewing.
Web Gallery of Art
Contains over 12,100 digital reproductions of European paintings and sculptures created between the years 1150 and 1800. A considerable number of the pictures are commented upon and biographies of the significant artists are given. Visitors can choose to search by title, artist's name, type, or simply take one of the guided tours. The site also provides free online postcards.
WPA Prints by Cleveland Artists
High resolution scans of works of art by Cleveland artists, commissioned under the Works Progress Administration. The WPA was the largest New Deal program and provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the Great Depression. It built many public buildings and roads, and as well operated a large arts project