National Gallery Open Access: London's Greatest Paintings, Free to Download

The National Gallery in London is home to one of the greatest collections of Western European painting in the world, spanning the period from the thirteenth century to the early twentieth century and including masterworks by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Velazquez, Rubens, Turner, Constable, Monet, Cezanne, and hundreds of other major artists. The gallery's Open Access program makes over 2,300 high-resolution images of public domain paintings from this extraordinary collection available for free download under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licence, providing unrestricted access to some of the most important paintings in the history of Western art.

For artists, researchers, educators, and anyone who wants access to high-quality images of historical masterworks, the National Gallery's open access program is one of the most valuable free resources available. The combination of the collection's extraordinary quality, the high resolution of the available images, and the CC0 licence that permits unrestricted use makes it an essential resource for anyone who works with historical art images.

The Collection

The National Gallery's collection is one of the most carefully curated in the world, representing the full range of Western European painting from the medieval period through the Post-Impressionist era. Unlike encyclopaedic museums that collect across all cultures and periods, the National Gallery focuses specifically on Western European painting, and this focus has allowed it to build a collection of exceptional depth and quality within its chosen scope.

Italian Renaissance painting is one of the collection's greatest strengths, with works by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, Botticelli, and dozens of other major Italian masters. The Leonardo holdings include The Virgin of the Rocks and The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist (the Burlington House Cartoon), two of the most important works by the artist outside Italy. The Raphael holdings include The Ansidei Madonna and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, among other significant works.

Dutch and Flemish painting is another area of exceptional strength, with major works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Rubens, Van Dyck, Frans Hals, and other masters of the Northern European tradition. The Rembrandt holdings include Belshazzar's Feast and numerous portraits, while the Vermeer holdings include A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal and A Young Woman Seated at a Virginal.

Spanish painting is represented by major works by Velazquez, Goya, El Greco, and Zurbaran, including Velazquez's The Rokeby Venus, one of the most celebrated paintings in the collection. French painting covers the full range from Poussin and Claude through the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, with major works by Monet, Renoir, Seurat, Cezanne, and Van Gogh.

British painting is represented by major works by Turner, Constable, Hogarth, and other British masters, including Turner's The Fighting Temeraire, consistently voted the greatest painting in Britain in public polls.

The Open Access Images

The open access images available through the National Gallery's website cover the public domain portion of the collection, which includes works created before 1900 and works by artists who died more than seventy years ago. The images are available in high resolution, with many works available at resolutions sufficient for detailed study of technique and surface.

The download process is straightforward: each painting's page on the National Gallery website includes a download option that provides access to the highest resolution version available. No registration is required, and the CC0 licence means that the images can be used for any purpose without attribution or licensing fees.

The search functionality on the National Gallery website is well-designed, allowing users to search by artist, period, subject, medium, and other criteria. The results are presented clearly, and each work's page includes detailed information about the work's history, provenance, and condition alongside the downloadable image.

Practical Uses for Artists

For painters who want to study the technique of the old masters, the National Gallery's high-resolution images provide access to a level of detail that was previously available only to museum visitors. The ability to examine the specific brushwork, glazing, and surface texture of a Rembrandt portrait or a Vermeer interior in high resolution is genuinely valuable for painters who want to understand how these effects were achieved.

For illustrators and designers who work with historical subjects, the collection provides an extraordinary range of reference material covering costume, interior design, landscape, and material culture from the thirteenth through the early twentieth centuries. The accuracy and detail of the paintings in the collection make them one of the most reliable sources of historical reference available for this period.

For educators who want to teach the history of Western European painting, the open access images provide high-quality materials that can be used freely in teaching materials, presentations, and publications without licensing costs.

The National Gallery Website as a Resource

Beyond the downloadable images, the National Gallery website provides extensive educational resources including detailed information about individual works, artist biographies, thematic essays, and audio guides. These resources make the website valuable as an educational resource in its own right, not just as a source of downloadable images.

The collection database allows users to explore the full collection, including works that are not currently on display in the gallery, providing access to the full breadth of the collection rather than just the works that are physically visible in the gallery at any given time.

The Bottom Line

The National Gallery Open Access program provides free, unrestricted access to over 2,300 high-resolution images of some of the greatest paintings in the history of Western art, from Leonardo and Raphael through Rembrandt and Vermeer to Turner and Cezanne. For artists, researchers, educators, and anyone who needs high-quality images of historical masterworks for any purpose, the National Gallery's open access collection is one of the most valuable free resources available anywhere.