Find images and artworks
Image research databases
The library subscribes to image research databases, which can include images of artworks, artefacts, and digitised photographs. These databases are especially useful when researching art in a historical or cultural context.
- Art and Architecture ArchiveA full-text archive of magazines comprising key research material in the fields of art and architecture, dating from the late-nineteenth century to the twenty-first. Subjects covered include fine art, decorative arts, architecture, interior design, industrial design, and photography. The magazines are scanned from cover-to-cover and presented as full-color page images; detailed indexing permits quick, efficient searching and navigation of this material.
- ARTstor Digital LibraryArtstor is JSTOR’s cross-disciplinary collection of rights-cleared images from around the world. The collection provides more than one million digital images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences from outstanding international museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, and artists and artists' estates.
- Oxford Art OnlineOxford Art Online offers access to the most authoritative, inclusive, and easily searchable online art resources available today. Through a single gateway, users can access and cross-search Oxford’s acclaimed, regularly updated art reference works: the Grove Dictionary of Art and the Benezit Dictionary of Artists. In addition, users can search and access the Oxford Reference titles: Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, Oxford Companion to Western Art, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms
- Design & Art Australia OnlineThis is an open source, freely accessible scholarly e-Research tool that presents biographical data about Australian artists, designers, craftspeople and curators
Online art collections
Many art museums and major galleries have searchable collection databases on their websites. These can be helpful sources of high quality images of work and information about the dimensions, materials, and provenance of an artwork. This list is not comprehensive, so you might like to explore further.
- Archive of Digital ArtDocuments digital installation art, it is research-oriented and interactive and was established with media artists, researchers and institutions
- Australian Prints + PrintmakingPrints and printmaking Australia Asia Pacific provides a gateway for information on printed images from Australia and the Asia Pacific region. Based on the print collection of the National Gallery of Australia.
- PSU Textile Art DatabaseThis crowd-sourced digital archive is intended as a resource for inspiration and research for interdisciplinary investigations of textiles and clothing.
- Your PaintingsDatabase of paintings held in UK public collections.
Find Archival Images
- Getty Research Library Museum Collection (Los Angeles, US)The Getty Museum includes a large collection of digitised artworks, antiquities, sculptures, manuscripts, and photographs.
- Trove - The National Library of Australia DatabaseNational Library of Australia Catalogue of holdings in Australian Libraries
Images library guide
For further advice about finding images for research and research, visit the Images Library Guide. This guide covers a range of discipline areas and includes guidance for finding images in print and online collections, and provides guidance on using and attributing images in your work.