Research Guides: Art & Art History: Find/Cite Images

Art Images Online

Need a copy of a particular piece of art? Wondering what it looks like? Try these:

Art Resource Searchable art stock photo archive, with more than 400,000 searchable fine art images from the world's leading sources, available for licensing to all media.
Britsh Museum Images The British Museum is the authoritative source of images depicting world culture and history including ceramics, sculpture, prints, drawings, and paintings.
Calisphere Free access to unique and historically important artifacts that have been digitized and contributed by all ten campuses of the University of California.
Getty Museum Collection Discover recent acquisitions and explore the Getty's collection thru this searchable database. Search by artist, medium, object, theme, or topic.
Google Art Project Select a museum from the homepage and then either choose ‘Explore the museum’ or ‘View Artwork’. Once you are in the main site use the drop-down menus or the side info bar to navigate between artworks and museums. Finally create and share your own collections online.
LACMA: the Collection Search artwork, content, archives, documents, subjects, exhibitions, installations, and more.
Metropolitan Museum of Art Collections Database Searchable database of works located at the museum. Searchable by artist, technique, geographic location, era, and museum department.
MOCA: Museum of Contemporary Art Browse MOCA's permanent collections by artist name, classification, or decade.
MoMA: the Collection Searchable database of works located at MoMA. Browse by artist, art terms, works, department, and decade.
New York Public Library Digital Gallery Provides free and open access to over 700,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's vast collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more.
Prints and Photographs Online Catalog Contains catalog records and digital images representing a rich cross-section of still pictures held by the Prints & Photographs Division at the Library of Congress. Includes photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings, posters, and architectural and engineering drawings.
Royal Institute of British Architects Growing database dedicated to providing unique images from the collections of the British Architectural Library at the Royal Institute of British Architects, the world’s most extensive visual archive devoted to architecture.
SPRIO: Slide and Photograph Image Retrieval Online Visual online public access catalog to the 35mm slide collection of the Architecture Visual Resources Library (AVRL) at the University of California at Berkeley.
Web Gallery of Art Virtual museum and searchable database of European painting and sculpture from 11th to mid-19th centuries.

Quick APA Citation Guide

ARTWORK IN A MUSEUM OR ON A MUSEUM WEBSITE:

Artist, A. (Year of release). Title of artwork [medium]. Name of museum, City, State, Country. URL

Painting:

van Gogh, V. (1889). Wheat Field with Cypresses [Oil on canvas]. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, United States. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436535? ft=van+gogh&offset=0&rpp=40&pos=3

Sculpture:

Calder, A. (1943). Vertical Constellation with Bomb [Painted steel wire, painted wood, and wood]. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., United States. https://www.nga.gov/collection/art- object-page.92729.html#overview

Photograph:

Adams, A. (1947). Nevada Fall, Rainbow [Gelatin silver print]. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, United States. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/58275? classifications=any&date_begin=Pre- 1850&date_end=2022&q=ansel+adams&utf8=%E2%9C%93&with_images=1

*To learn more about detailed citation rules visit the Purdue Online Writing Lab, look at the APA Handbook at the Circulation Desk, or email a Librarian.

Created by: Emily Elliott

Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) RSS Feed

Create your own art!

Become part of the Sketchbook Project!

The Sketchbook Project
The Sketchbook Project Limited Edition Vol. 1 is a collaborative series of art books created by 5,000 artists from around the world.

Anyone — from anywhere in the world — can participate in the project. Sign up to receive a blank sketchbook in the mail, then fill it up and send it back. Your work will be cataloged in the Brooklyn Art Library and published in the Limited Edition art book series.

Quick MLA Citation Guide

AN IMAGE (INCLUDING A PAINTING, SCULPTURE, OR PHOTOGRAPH):

Artist last name, First name. Title of work. Date. Website name, URL

Painting:

Seurat, George. A Sunday on La Grande Jatte -- 1884. 1884-1886. The Art Institute of Chicago, https://www.artic.edu/artworks/27992/a-sunday-on-la-grande-jatte-1884

Sculpture:

Crawford, Thomas. Genius of Mirth. 1842; carved 1843. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/10574? ft=Genius+of+Mirth&offset=0&rpp=40&pos=1

Photograph:

Racioppo, Larry. [Superman]. 1974-1978. The New York Public Library. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/f36442b0-82b7-0130-b66a-58d385a7bbd0#/? uuid=f35cbce0-82b7-0130-01b7-58d385a7bbd0

*To learn more about detailed citation rules visit the Purdue Online Writing Lab, look at the MLA Handbook at the Circulation Desk, or email a Librarian.

Created by: Emily Elliott