Odalisque by Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1830
You don’t have to travel the world to see great art. As museums continue to digitize their collections, you can view paintings, sculptures, and other artwork that spans thousands of years and geographical locations. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has worked for the past two years to make their acquisitions viewable online. There are 20,000 images available and in the public domain, making them also free downloadable art for anyone. Altogether, the museum has uploaded 80,000 works on their website with both restricted and unrestricted use—a quarter of the art that’s in their physical collection.
It’s easy to find an image that will inspire you. The robust online search is sorted via highlights, chronology, curatorial area, and more; it’s a great place to start. If you’re looking for something more specific, however, they’ve tagged individual works with their defining attributes. Typing in the word “cactus”, for instance, will bring up photographs, paintings, and objects having to do with the plant. You can even choose the option to filter only images that are in the public domain.
Check out a small sample of what you can find on the LACMA art website, including works by artists like Mondrian, Cezanne, and Degas.
The LACMA art museum has digitized a fraction of their collection and put it online—including 20,000 images of free downloadable art.
The Lansdowne Bust of Athena of Velletri by Kresilias
Here’s just some of what you’ll find (and is the public domain).
Mount Yoshino, Cherry Blossoms by Kobayashi Kiyochika, 1897
The Dancers by Edgar Degas, 1898
Death of Meleager by François Boucher, 1727
Woman and Child by Mary Cassatt
Composition in White, Red, and Yellow by Mondrian, 1936
Untitled by Peter Behrens, 1898
Cleopatra by Circle of Pierre Julien, 1795
Sous-Bois by Paul Cézanne, 1894
Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Website | Facebook | Instagram
h/t: [Open Culture]
All images via Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
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