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Fine Art: Top Sites

Art Resource

- Worlds largest fine art stock photo archive, licensing authorized images to all media.

Bridgeman

- Centralized resource, with images from over 8,000 collections and more than 29,000 artists. Represents museums and galleries.

Fine Art Images

- One of the largest online art libraries with 11,000 works of art by international artists from all centuries.

Granger Collection

- History of the world in pictures from before the Stone Age to the dawn of the Space Age. Six million color transparencies.

Heritage-Images

- Online picture library of 100,000+ high-res images covering the whole of world history. Contributions from both major and specialist UK institutions.

Mary Evans Picture Library

- Famous, London-based general archive with millions of historical/contemporary photos; 200,000 online. Many collections, inc. ILN.

Scala

- A remarkable online "collection of collections" of fine art, including images from major national galleries around the world. Highly browsable.

UK Museums, Galleries

BMAGiC

- Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery's online database. A "snapshot" of collection objects and information exported from the museums' internal databases.

British Library Images Online

- Digital images of drawings, illustrations, paintings and photographs; includes the Fay Godwin Archive of maps spanning 3,000 years, plus rare books, manuscripts, and music scores.

British Museum Images

- Powerful, new website shows off the BM's unrivalled collections documenting world cultures and civilisations. Old master drawings, too. Constantly updated.

Chatsworth Photo Library

- Images of items in the Devonshire Collection, including the Lewinski Archive of photographs of artists in Britain, 1962-95, plus silver, furniture, paintings.

COLLAGE

- Top online resource for London's history. Contains over 20,000 works of art from the Guildhall Library and Art Gallery, from the 15th century onwards.

Courtauld Images

- 40,000 high quality digital images of paintings, drawings, architecture and sculpture from the Courtauld Gallery and Conway Library.

Glasgow Museums Photo Library

- Dutch 17th Century, French Impressionist and Post Impressionist paintings, Scottish art, and some of the Burrell Collection's Japanese prints, tapestries etc.

Historic Royal Palaces

- Inside and outside the unoccupied royal palaces in the UK: Hampton Court, Tower of London, Banqueting House, Kew Palace and others. The Crown Jewels, too.

Imperial War Museum

- London's Imperial War Museum has over 10 million photographs of conflicts, chiefly WWI and WWII, by both pro and amateur photographers.

Manchester Art Gallery

- Magnificent collection of Pre-Raphaelite and Victorian paintings, plus other paintings, watercolours, drawings, applied and decorative arts.

Marx Memorial Library

- Marxism, socialism and the history of the Labour movement -- in images: Marx, Engels, Lenin, Blair. (Blair? Yes, really.)

MFA Images

- The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The physical collections encompass nearly 450,000 works of art. You can search and browse images of the MFA Collections, select the ones you need and obtain a license to use them.

Motoring Picture Library

- From the archives of the UK's National Motor Museum, Beaulieu; 750,000 b/w and 125,000 color images.

Museum of London Picture Library

- 35,000+ images of paintings, prints, drawings, maps, historic photos, artefacts and costume, with emphasis on the City of London, Westminster and Greater London.

National Gallery Picture Library

- London's National Gallery has photographed its great collection of masterpieces and makes them available online.

Natural History Museum Picture Library

- 40,000 pictures of skeletons, skins and specimens, maps, documents, and all kinds of natural history images.

National Maritime Museum

- The UK's National Maritime Museum has a huge collection of maritime art and artefacts that is searchable online.

National Museums Scotland

- 40,000 items in five museums have been photographed, out of 3,000,000. Art, war, aviation, rural life, and costume.

National Portrait Gallery

- The UK's leading portrait gallery: a unique collection of great images of great British historical and contemporary figures.

Royal Armouries

- Images of arms and armor from Britain's great collection, much of which is now available from a new online catalog.

Royal Collection Enterprises

- In the UK's Royal Collection: paintings, furniture, sculpture, jewellery, clocks - every artefact of value - now imaged digitally and brilliantly organized.

Science + Media Museum

- A major UK resource -- devoted to film, photography, television, radio and the web.

Tate Images

- 65,000+ works of art: the two major collections being historic British art from 1500, and international modern art.

The Wallace Collection

- Famous London museum with 5,800 works of art, including wonderful clocks, princely arms, gold boxes, and 18th century French paintings.

V&A Images

- The picture library of London's Victoria and Albert Museum. Extensive collection of art images for all media.

US Museums, Galleries

American Memory

- From the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions: all historical aspects of the USA in all media.

Eastman Museum

- Independent non-profit museum. Collection includes 400,000 images since the invention of photography, by 14,000 photographers.

Library of Congress Prints

- Access through group or item records to about 75 percent of the Division's holdings. Not all public domain.

National Archives

- The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) keeps official U.S. Government records, inc. images.

The National Archives Catalog

- Search the online catalog of NARA's nationwide holdings in the DC area, Regional Archives and Presidential Libraries.

Whitney

- WhitneyCat is the online catalog at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

European and Other Museums, Galleries

Alinari Archives

- Famous Florentine art archive, with nearly 5 million photos: architecture, painting, photography, craft, industry, work, sport, cinema and literature. Many online.

l'Agence Photo

- Mainly offline collection of news shots taken in French museums. 300,000 color/black and white documents.

Bildarchiv Austria

- "The Image Platform of the Austrian National Library". Historical photos of people, places, events, buildings.

National Gallery of Ireland Picture Library

- Containing the Yeats Museum and National Portrait Collection, plus European art. 15,000 art works, but not online.

Roger-Viollet

- 280,000 images chosen from the 8m photos in the Roger-Viollet archive. Works with partners Alinari, Ullsteinbild, TopFoto, Imagno, UPPA, etc.

ullstein bild

- Selected contemporary photos, century-old archive, plus images from partnerships. 6 million overall. German.

Historical Collections

Ancient Art & Architecture Collection

- Painting, sculpture, engraving and woodcuts, stained glass, wood and stone carving, C.M. Dixon Collection and more.

Advertising Archives

- 1 million+ press ads, TV stills, magazine covers, posters, illustrations and ephemera, U.S./U.K, 1850 the present. 50,000 images online.

Antiquarian Images

- Covering 15th to 19th century: Antique maps and charts, frontispieces, country houses, furniture, buildings, classical gardens, etc. Sample range online.

ArkReligion.com

- Covers all religious subjects. Undigitized collection, but scans to order. Supplies very high quality images taken on film chiefly in medium format.

Art Image LA

- Contemporary painting, photography, sculpture, murals and drawings by both established and up and coming artists.

Calisphere

- Historical archive relating to California. Superbly presented in themed collections with zoom facility.

Car Culture

- Spans the entire history of the automobile from the 1884 De Dion-Bouton of France to today's concept cars.

Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection

- 14,500 Kodachromes from 1938 to 1969 by Charles Weever Cushman, amateur photographer.

ClassicStock.com

- A selection of retro, vintage, nostalgic, historic and humorous photo images and illustrations.

Culver Pictures

- Half-million images now digitized! People, places, events, occupations, entertainments and artifacts of the past.

Erich Lessing Culture and Fine Arts Archives

- Large-format colour transparencies: fine arts, archaeology, religion, landscapes, places and portraits. From 1000 museums and 2000 other locations.

North Wind Picture Archive

- Historical subjects from North America and elsewhere, including family life, business & commerce, exploration & settlers, and portraits. 500,000+ images.

Sonia Halliday Photographs

- UK library specializing in stained glass, history and religion. Covers most countries, from Afghanistan to Yemen. Strong on mythology.

Werner Forman Archive

- Werner Forman's life work: documenting in photos the history, art, religion and customs of the great civilizations and tribal societies of the past.