Lyjia's Directory of Free, Open Collections of Historically Significant Art

June 27, 2024. Tagged resources, art, lists, directories, free

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer (Mauritshuis)

Every so often I find myself looking for art for some reason or another -- maybe a blog post, or referencing something I saw in a museum, or maybe just for plain enjoyment -- and oftentimes it can be found in an open image collection! I've kept a small working list of these places in my head over the years, and I realized it might be useful to write them down and figure out what else is out there. As it turns out, there is a lot!

This is a collection of high-resolution, open-access, free-download, free-to-use image libraries, focusing on the visual arts like painting or photography. There are other styles of art (like sculptures, audio, or archaeological artifacts) in some of these links but that is not the focus. Most of these links are free to use in any application -- commercial or non-commercial -- but not all. Please check the license before using anything you find here commercially. The images in these links should be a mixture of public domain and Creative Commons-licensed content.

This list was last updated in July 2024.

Libraries

New York Public Library Public Domain Collections

The British Library (on Flickr)

Library of Congress Free to Use

Space

NASA Image and Video Library

WEBB Image Library

Museums

National Gallery of Art Open Access

The Getty Collection (Los Angeles)