Recommended Art Image Databases
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JSTOR (including ARTSTOR) This link opens in a new windowProvides full-text access to a broad range of resources about the humanities, sciences, and social sciences, including primary sources, images, articles, and books. Does not contain the most recent journal articles.
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ArtsyArtsy features the world’s leading galleries, museum collections, foundations, artist estates, art fairs, and benefit auctions, all in one place. Our growing database of 300,000 images of art, architecture, and design by 40,000 artists spans historical, modern, and contemporary works, and includes the largest online database of contemporary art.
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EuropeanaDiscover Europe’s digital cultural heritage: Search, save and share art, books, films and music from thousands of cultural institutions
Open Access Image Collections
Open Access, by AJC ajcann.wordpress.com, CC BY-NC-SA
Many cultural institutions allow downloading of public domain images of artworks from their respective collections. Public domain means no longer in copyright and is free to use in any way.
Other Image Resources
Images are all around us and are easily searchable thanks to sites like Google Images, Flickr, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest to mention a few.
Free to use images (copyright-free/public domain/Creative Commons licensing):
- Unsplash.com
- Smithsonian Institute's Flickr
- Nappy.co
- Wikimedia Commons
- Art Institute of Chicago
- National Gallery of Art
- Creative Commons Openverse
- Free to use films are located at Internet Archive's Prelinger Archives.
It depends upon your assignment whether these are acceptable ways of gathering and using images. Please consult with your professor if you have questions about whether or not these are suitable ways of searching for images for your given assignment.