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Currently I am required to take one "General Education" course which also happens to be something related to "Art". Sadly, the course is more about quantity of stuff, not about quality, i.e., we learn zero about methods.

What we also didn't learn is how to source and find digital equivalents or photographs of artworks. Now I am required to hand in a "slide library" of pictures and drawings (not my own, but those discussed in class - as well as stuff I collected from the www).

Even though it is not required, I don't want to totally let my academic standards down, but try to actually learn something. Thus I would like to know:

From where and "how" might a library obtain digital equivalents of existing paintings sourced on the www?

Before the discussion explodes again about the question "cite" vs. everything else: I only look for sources, not how to cite, I know how to. I would welcome suggestions about art journals (if something like this exists) or similar "authorities" in the field. (Because we also didn't learn anything about this...)

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Hi grunwald, I edited your question down a bit, as questions on this site should really be related to tools and techniques used by professional librarians/information scientists and not general users of the library. I think it may be useful to future users, though, so I made it more general. – jonsca♦ Nov 22 '12 at 9:30
Aha, cool, thanks for letting me know, one more elitist SE site. -.- So where does the "user" of libraries or academic ask?! My question was closed as "off-topic" on academia.SE! – grunwald2.0 Nov 22 '12 at 13:28
Well, not elitism here, but topicality. I think as it is it's fine for it to stay here, I just wanted to make it more general. I'm not sure where "library user" questions would fit, honestly. – jonsca♦ Nov 22 '12 at 13:32
Ok. Yep, that is a question that might need to be discussion in the meta or academics.SE and libraries.SE ... – grunwald2.0 Nov 23 '12 at 11:24
If you'd like to start a meta thread about it on Meta.Libraries, that would be much appreciated. – jonsca♦ Nov 23 '12 at 22:39
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4 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

Images of artwork can often be found on the website of the museum which holds the particular item, but by far the best site for art images with "open" copyright licences is Wikimedia Commons.

There are various ways to find images there, but for your purposes you may want to choose to browse via available classification categories, such as "Art by period‎", "Art by movement‎", or "Art by location".

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Thanks for the answer! I wish to add the question: And how "SHOULD" they be found? As said, I did not only ask how to find the picture (if everything else fails: Google Images! ;)) but where to properly / best source (i.e. also cite) from. Not from a quality but academic point of view. i.e. IF I would already knew which museum would hold those pieces (I don't), I probably wouldn't ask the question. You understand what I mean?... – grunwald2.0 Nov 21 '12 at 11:31
To amend this comment: I just noticed that I basically want / prefer a "Google Scholar" for artworks, i.e. I'd like to search for artworks directly, that lists the "museum" that holds the item in question. – grunwald2.0 Nov 21 '12 at 11:36
up vote 2 down vote

Have a search on www.europeana.eu for metadata of images contributed directly from the institutions which hold the original.

Beware the idiosynchratic coverage, though; partly due to use of Dublin Core and partly due to ad-hoc content development.

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Wow, this is such a good idea. I even knew the website, but totally forgot about it! Will try it out. – grunwald2.0 Nov 29 '12 at 4:04
up vote 2 down vote

Margaret Vail Anderson, a librarian in Cortland, New York, has a website where she has listed some great resources for finding digital images online. I suggest you poke around her "art" information page and perhaps contact her. In general I would say look at the institution which owns the art image or the rights to it.

http://www.digital-librarian.com/art.html

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That is quite an extensive and nice resource! Thanks! :) – grunwald2.0 Nov 29 '12 at 4:04
up vote 1 down vote accepted

I just came across the "NGA Images" of the National Gallery of Art (Washington, USA):

NGA Images is a repository of digital images of the collections of the National Gallery of Art. On this website you can search, browse, share, and download images. A standards-based reproduction guide and a help section provide advice for both novices and experts. More than 22,000 open access digital images up to 3000 pixels each are available free of charge for download and use.

Hyperlink: https://images.nga.gov/en/page/show_home_page.html

Mission / Background ("About us"):

Open Access Policy for Images of Works of Art Presumed in the Public Domain

With the launch of NGA Images, the National Gallery of Art implements an open access policy for digital images of works of art that the Gallery believes to be in the public domain. Images of these works are now available free of charge for any use, commercial or non-commercial.

and:

The mission of the National Gallery of Art is to serve the United States of America in a national role by preserving, collecting, exhibiting, and fostering the understanding of works of art at the highest possible museum and scholarly standards.

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