Research guides: Art History: Finding Images

Recommended Places to Look

Images and Visual Resource Collections
This research guide directs you to a range of resources at the University of Toronto Library and numerous online resources for specialized subject areas. Consult the tab, Public Domain and Creative Commons for images that do not require copyright permissions to use.
ARTstor
This resource is highly recommended as a starting point for finding images of art and objects in over 300 museum collections.
With over 2.5 million images, this Digital Library provides straightforward access to curated images from reliable sources that have been rights-cleared for use in education and research — you are free to use them in classroom instruction and handouts, presentations, student assignments, and other noncommercial educational and scholarly activities.
FADIS
FADIS is the University of Toronto's learning management and courseware system developed for image based teaching. The goal of FADIS is to offer a freely available common repository and delivery system for education and research available to contributing institutions.
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Students can access complete course information where faculty make it available. Image lectures can be viewed online and downloaded as PDFs containing thumbnail images, image data and any lecture notes added by their instructor. In addition, students can view handouts and download any files posted to their course, view syllabi and access any external resources which are automatically generated as hyperlinks. Course syllabi are also available as PDF format.
Artefacts Canada
Thanks to the important contribution of this country's heritage institutions, the Artefacts Canada database contains more than 4 million object records and more than 1 million images from Canadian museums. This important source of information is made available to museum professionals and the public.
Google Images
The results can be overwhelming! Look for images of art that are provided by reputable sites like museums, art galleries, academic institutions, historical societies, and of course artists' own websites.

Citing Images

Information about paintings, photographs, sculptures, or other works of art can usually be presented within the text part of the essay rather than in a footnote or bibliography. If a note or bibliography entry is needed, list the artist, a title (in italics), and a date of creation or completion, followed by information about the medium and the location of the work. For works consulted online, add a URL.

1. Salvador Dalí, The Persistence of Memory, 1931, oil on canvas, 9½ × 13″ (24.1 × 33 cm), Museum of Modern Art, New York, http://www.moma.org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/collection/works/79018.

2. Dorothea Lange, Black Maria, Oakland, 1957, printed 1965, gelatin silver print, 39.3 × 37 cm, Art Institute, Chicago, http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/220174.

McCurry, Steve. Afghan Girl. December 1984. Photograph. National Geographic, cover, June 1985.

Picasso, Pablo. Bull’s Head. Spring 1942. Bicycle saddle and handlebars, 33.5 × 43.5 × 19 cm. Musée Picasso Paris.

Source: https://www-chicagomanualofstyle-org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/book/ed17/part3/ch14/psec235.html