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Free public-domain art: paintings and prints

Museums have released millions of photographs of public-domain works under CC0: you can print a Van Gogh on a tote bag, put a Hokusai wave on a book cover or use a 19th-century botanical plate on a packaging design without asking anyone. These collections gather that art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Cleveland Museum of Art, searched directly, with Wikimedia Commons and Openverse filling the gaps. Every card shows the museum, the year and the licence.

Updated , from a live search of 33 sites.

3 collections

  • Free botanical illustrations and plant drawings

    Free public-domain botanical illustrations: hand-coloured plates of flowers, fruit and plants from old herbals and museums, ready for print and design.

    36 images from 6 sources · 21 at 1080 px or larger

  • Japanese woodblock prints (ukiyo-e), free

    Free public-domain Japanese woodblock prints: Hokusai, Hiroshige, Utamaro and more, from museum open-access collections, with sizes and CC0 licences shown.

    36 images from 4 sources · 18 at 1080 px or larger

  • Public-domain Impressionist paintings

    Free Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings from museum open access (Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Cézanne), released as CC0 by the Met and other museums.

    36 images from 4 sources · 25 at 1080 px or larger

What open access means

When a work's copyright has expired (in most countries 70 years after the artist died), museums that photograph it can release the photograph under CC0. The Met, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Cleveland Museum of Art do this for hundreds of thousands of works and offer the files at print resolution. Works still in copyright stay out of these collections.

Using museum images well

Crop and recolour freely: CC0 has no conditions. A credit line ('Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1887. The Metropolitan Museum of Art') is good manners and helps your readers. Use the largest file for print: museum originals often run to 4000 pixels or more, and the Cleveland Museum of Art also offers full-resolution TIFFs.

Questions

Can I sell prints of public-domain paintings?
Yes, when the museum releases the image as CC0 or public domain, as the Met, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Cleveland Museum of Art do for their open-access works. Check the verdict on each image: works still in copyright are not included.
Do I have to credit the museum?
Not for CC0 images, but museums ask for it and it helps readers find the original. A line with the artist, title, date and museum is enough.

Search art live

Each link runs a fresh search of every source for one kind of image. Results show their size and shape where known and carry a licence verdict; turn on Commercial-safe to keep only images you can use commercially.

Also known as: public domain art, museum images, free paintings, old master paintings.

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