A list of some museums with notable image collections. Most have free digital images but be sure to check the policy on using images on the museum's website.
Founded in 1879, the Art Institute of Chicago is one of the world’s major museums, housing an extraordinary collection of objects from across places, cultures, and time. We are also a place of active learning for all—dedicated to investigation, innovation, education, and dialogue—continually aspiring to greater public service and civic engagement.
The DIA's collection is among the top six in the United States, with more than 65,000 works. The foundation was laid by William Valentiner, who was director from 1924 to 1945 and acquired many important works that established the framework of today's collections. Among his notable acquisitions are Mexican artist Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry fresco cycle, which Rivera considered his most successful work, and Vincent van Gogh's Self-Portrait, the first Van Gogh painting to enter a U.S. museum collection.
A hallmark of the DIA is the diversity of the collection
This non-commercial initiative works with cultural institutions and artists to allow art enthusiasts to search for and experience art collections, themes, artists, mediums, movements, places, and history.
The Getty Open Content Program offers access to over 100,000 digital images of artworks from their collection, including paintings, sculptures, manuscripts, and more.
Created by the University of Michigan's School of Art & Design, this page links to lists of resources for research, collections, museums, and other categories.
Free open access image downloads are now available directly from the object pages located on this website. More than 60,000 images are available for download, and we will continue to add more as they become available.
Images of these works are available free of charge for any use, whether commercial or non-commercial.
With 800 contributors from 350 colleges, universities, museums, and research centers, Smarthistory is the most-visited art history resource in the world.
Smithsonian Open Access, where you can download, share, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images—right now, without asking. With new platforms and tools, you have easier access to more than 5.1 million 2D and 3D digital items from our collections—with many more to come. This includes images and data from across the Smithsonian’s 21 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.
Review significant moments in art history from all over the globe. For each of the six regions below there are three or four timelines, each covering a specific era. The timelines feature brief summaries of important events in the visual arts; many of the summaries are accompanied by an image, and all link to articles in Grove Art Online for further reading.
