Guides: Art and Art History Research Guide: Image Search

Print Study

This print from the late 18th/early 19th century is a study for an illustration to 'The Schoolmaster's Tour' by William Combe.

© Trustees of the British Museum
Object Type: Print study and drawing
Materials: Paper
Techniques: Drawn
Production Person: Drawn by Thomas Rowlandson
Date: 1757-1857
Study for 'Dr Syntax and Rural Sports.'

ARTstor

ARTstor This link opens in a new window
ARTstor contains more than one million images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and social sciences from over 150 major collections. Some collections include: Magnum Photos, the Illustrated Bartsch, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Berlin State Museums, Erich Lessing Culture and Fine Arts Archives, Scala Archives, Carnegie Arts of the United States, the Natural History Museum in London, The Bodleian Library at Oxford University, the Mellon International Dunhuang Archive, and the Ezra Stoller Archive of Modern Architecture. There are a number of software tools available to the researcher for creating, presenting and managing collections. Please NOTE: First time users must be ON CAMPUS to create an account.
Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window
Oxford Art Online comprises the Grove Art Online database [based on the full text of The Dictionary of Art, edited by Jane Turner (1996, 34 vols)], the Oxford Companion to Western Art (2001), the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics (1998, 4 vols.), and the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms (2001).

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Images

These websites have large collections of images.

Archives Directory for the History of Collecting
The Center of the History of Collecting in America has made this directory which offers information regarding “primary source material about American collectors, dealers, agents and advisors, and the repositories that hold these records. Archives related to American collectors of the fine and decorative arts, including antiquities and non-Western art are included.” This directory is continually being updated. A search for “photograph” yielded a list of 48 galleries and collectors.
The British Museum
The British Museum has numerous images available online. The British Museum also allows individuals to request 100 images a month after registering! The museum's departments include Ancient Egypt and Sudan, Asia, Coins and Medals,Conservation and Scientific Research, Greece and Rome, Middle East, Prehistory and Europe, Prints and Drawings, and Africa, Oceania and the Americas.
Louvre Databases
The Louvre allows access to these databases - Atlas: Database of exhibits, Inventory of the Department of Prints and Drawings, La Fayette: Database of American Art, Online catalogue of Coptic ceramics - the Clemence Neyret database, Database of British art in French museums, and Joconde: Works in French Museums.
New York Public Library (NYPL) Digital Collections
New York Public Library has at least 900,000 images from collections such as illuminated manuscripts, rare illustrated books, drawings, posters, maps, rare prints, and photographs. Other collections include the etchings and lithographs found in The Samuel Putnam Avery Collection and the maps, charts, globes, books, atlases of the Lawrence H. Slaughter Collection. The user can search by subjects, names, library divisions, arts & literature, cities & buildings, culture & society, history & geography, industry & technology, nature & science, and printing & graphics. The links to the NYPL Catalog provide the bibliographic source of the item. This web site has a picture of the day.
Online Databases and Catalogues at the Pitt Rivers Museum
The Pitt Rivers Museum has online databases and catalogues (collection, object collection catalogue, and photograph collection catalogue). No images are available at this time but soon the images will be available in the online databases and catalogues.
Visual Arts Data Service (VADS)
Visual Arts Data Servics has over 100,000 images and has numerous collections such as African and Asian Visual Artists Archive, Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Northern Italian Sketchbook, Imperial War Museum: Posters of Conflict, London College of Fashion: Gala Archive, Oxford Portraits: University of Oxford, and Netherlands Decorated Books Collections: London College of Communication. There are also learning resources which contains information by subject specialists on Calligraphy: an education in letter form and Art for Social Spaces. Additionally on the Resources Page there are links to other websites. The user can search by a theme (applied arts, architecture, design, fine art, and media) or by frequent tags. The user can conduct basic and advanced searches. This web site has a picture of the day.
The Walters Art Museum
The Walters Art Museum has "art from pre-dynastic Egypt to 20th-century Europe, and counts among its many treasures Greek sculpture and Roman sarcophagi; medieval ivories and Old Master paintings; Art Deco jewelry and 19th-century European and American masterpieces." The library at The Walters Art Museum is open to students who provide the library with the titles or numbers of the work they wish to examine. A fuller explanation is found on The Library of the Walters Art Museum Page; this page also provides access to the library's catalog.
Works of Art from the Met
Works of Art from the Met allows the user to search by time period (the range is from 8000-2000 BC to 1900 AD-Present), geographical region (Africa, Central America, East Asia, Oceania, South America, West Asia, and more), thematic category (Asian Art, Art of the Americas, Byzantine Art, Islamic Art, and more) , and by department. It is also possible to search if the user already knows the title of the work of art, artist, materials and techniques, credit line, or accession number. There is also information for "How to Read a Caption" as well. The user can change how the results appear - grid view, image view, and list view. Under indexes are subject (A-Z), artist (A-Z), and list of rulers (Byzantium, China, Europe, Japan, Korea, and Presidents of the United States of America). WATSONLINE is the Catalog of the Libaries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art which the user can search.
Google Art Project
A section of art galleries and museums around the world with over 385 gallery rooms.