IMAGE RESOURCES
This listing provides a sampling of prominent rights holders, many of whom offer open access/creative commons licences. The listing is an ongoing project and we encourage you to submit suggestions for additions or amendments to those that we have published here. A PDF list can be found here.
The images are loosely grouped under Open Access/Creative Commons licences and Other Licences which may or may not require the payment of a fee. As many institutions have both free and paid for offerings, some organisations will be listed in both sections.
To suggest additions or changes to this image resource listing please email us through the form on our Contact Us page.
OPEN ACCESS/CREATIVE COMMONS
100,000 images online, including 56,000 in public domain, from a collection of 300,000 objects
All high-resolution images are held by Bridgeman images or DACS. There are currently 320,081 object records online and over 20,000 in the image library.
Bildindex der Kunst & Architektur (Bildarchiv Foto Marburg)
Image index database from 13 European countries for around 80 cultural and scientific institutions, with access to over 2 million photographs, artworks and architectural objects.
Birmingham Museums Digital Image Resource
More than 1,000 free images and 6,000 images available online from a collection of 800,000 objects. CC images are free up to 3MB and 300 dpi.
British Library (Flickr Commons)
Digitised 65,000 books from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries from a collection of more than 13 million books.
Current online selection of 4.5 million images from the 8 million objects held by the museum. CC-BY-NC images are available up to 750×2500 pixels.
BNF Gallica (Bibliotheque nationale de France)
Digital library of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. The picture library has 849,590 images available for free online from a collection of 1.7 million.
33,000 images online from a collection of over 3.2 million. The photographic collections are undergoing a mass digitization project due to be completed in 2025. Images for commercial use must be obtained via Bridgeman Images.
The licencing service for European collections with 55 million digitised items.
74,000 images online from a collection of 500,000. Images under Creative Commons can be downloaded only in low resolution.
Getty Museum and Research Institute
160,000 images available through the Open Content Program. 86,000 images of works of art and 78,000 images of art and archival materials are included in the OCP.
1,900 works available from a collection of 8,000. Through the IAP program, a selection of publication-quality images for scholarly publications are provided free of charge (limited license up to 2,000 copies) via ARTstor.
240,000 digitsed images from collections numbering over 250,000.
The online collection includes 30,000 objects from holdings of 380,000. OA images may also be used for EU-registered publishers for theses and papers up to 1500 copies.
Over 492,000 images online of the 2 million objects in the collection. Images not in OA and for commercial use must be accessed through Art Resource for a fee.
14,000 drawings online, representing works of art spanning the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries.
103,000 objects online from a collection of 200,000. Non-OA and commercial use images must be accessed through Art Resource/Scala for a fee.
National Gallery of Art, Washington
58,504 open access digital images are available from the permanent collection of 141,000. The Gallery may charge processing fees regardless of OA.
220,000 works online. NC online use is restricted to low-resolution images. Private, NC research/publications, and educational use is free below 2,000 book copies or 4,000 journal copies via the Academic License.
170,000 images digitised from a collection of 240,000. Images in the Public Domain are provided in high resolution upon request, free of charge.
Collection of 800,000 works online, all online images are subject to their Open Data Policy. The collection illustrates the history of the Netherlands, from the Middle Ages to present.
7,300 objects offered with CC licences of the over 70,000 works of art in the collection across four sites: Modern, Britain and Liverpool and St. Ives. Low-resolution images only under CC-BY-NC-ND.
Online catalogue currently represents 100,000 records from the Centre’s collection of 130,000 objects. For records with no images, you can request digital files. 50, 831 images are free to use, including for commercial purposes. 70,271 images require permissions
188,422 digitised images from a collection of 300,000 objects representing Eastern and Western cultures. Available for free download for non-commercial or derivative use.
OTHER LICENCES
A repository of over 3 million photographs online from a collection of 10 million fine art, history and photographic images.
The Albertina online collection offers 265,000 works online out of a collection of 1 million drawings and prints from the late Gothic to the present including works by Michelangelo, Dürer, Rembrant and Rubens. Images in the public domain are available for free download and use up to 1200 pixels.
Fondazione Alinari per la Fotografia
Major agency for Italian art and architecture. Over 5 million photographs documenting the history of Italy from the mid 1800s to present.
3,000 images online from a collection of European art, best known for its collection of French 19th-century paintings.
BPK (Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz)
German agency for major museums, holds an archive of over 12 million photographs. More than 100 major museums and libraries are partners of the BPK.
International agency/focus on British art, with over three million images and videos in their collection.
Database with over 600,000 images and 300,000 works of art from the Uffizi gallery. Images can be reproduced for non-profit, private, and educational use and dissemination is free to prevent further reproduction for profit. Fees for scientific and commercial purposes apply.
Collection encompasses nearly 450,000 works of art from the Egyptian era to the present day.
Collection contains over 2,600 works paintings from c 1200 to the early 20th century. Some images licenses for non-commercial use and offered in low-resolution only.
Includes collections of the following museums and galleries: Merseyside Maritime Museum, Museum of Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, World Museum, Lady Lever Art Gallery, International Slavery Museum. There are over 28,000 items from the collections available online.
Réunion des Musées Nationaux (RMN)-Grand Palais L’Agence
Includes over 430,000 copyrighted images from France’s national museums, including the Louvre, Musée D’Orsay, and Centre Pompidou. It also offers licensing for images from major museums in the UK and Italy.
3.5 million images from international museums and galleries (notably in the US, Italy, Spain and UK) offering licensing for copyrighted photos. It also covers copyrighted photos from UK galleries like the V&A and the Wallace Collection.
Vatican Library (manuscripts, drawings)
Over 80,000 manuscripts and drawings from the collection currently online, reproductions for any use must request permission from the Vatican Library website.
Vatican Museums (paintings/sculpture)
49,000 images online of the works and images belonging to the Vatican Collections. Image licensing can be accessed via the Vatican Museums website or Scala.
About Creative Commons Licences
Creative Commons (CC) copyright licenses and tools forge a balance inside the traditional “all rights reserved” setting that copyright law creates. You can find more detailed information about each licence on Creative Commons website and by following individual ‘CC’ licence deed links below
Attribution | CC BY Licence Deed
Attribution-ShareAlike | CC BY-SA Licence Deed
Attribution-NoDerivs | CC BY-ND Licence Deed
Attribution-NonCommercial | CC BY-NC Licence Deed
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike | CC BY-NC-SA Licence Deed
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs | CC BY-NC-ND Licence Deed
There is a further Creative Commons licence (CC0) which allows allocating a work to the public domain by waiving all copyright and related rights. You can read more about the difference between CC0 and Public Domain attribution in the CC0 FAQ.