Creative Commons: downloadable artworks

1,000 images available

We're very pleased to announce that we have made 1,000 high-resolution images of artworks from our collection available to download under an Open Data Initiative.

This initial list of artworks has been carefully curated to include works from different areas of our collection, making sure to have representation from different schools, nationalities, media and subject matter.

Why have we made these works available?

The main objective of this initiative is to provide a broad audience with the chance to engage freely with our collection, and to enable use of high resolution collection images under a free and open licensing platform.

How have we made these works available?

Many options for how to provide this platform were considered, but after careful consideration we chose to go ahead with the already established, and Open Knowledge Foundation approved, Creative Commons licence archetype, thus opening our collection to all potential participants. We then created a custom platform for engaging with the Gallery via both of our National Gallery Images site and our  Online Collection site. You can also see at a glance all the downloadable images here. 

What does this mean?

This means that you can download - for free and without seeking permission from the Gallery - any image of an artwork that is labelled as being available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. You are free to share the images (i.e. copy and redistribute them in any medium or format) and free to adapt them (remix, transform, and build upon them for any purpose, even commercial purposes!). There are some terms and conditions, which you can read here.

Remind me - where can I download these images?

The images are available through our image-licensing platform National Gallery Images, and can also be downloaded from our Online Collection site. Images available under this type of license can be easily identified by the orange 'CC' icon which you'll see on the thumbnail. A new category for Creative Commons has also been created on our images website to allow instant access to all images available under this license, which you'll find here: Creative Commons images available to download.

What's next?

This is only the beginning of our journey with open data! We'll continue to add high resolution images to the platform every month!

The Gallery would like to give special thanks to the Department for Public Expenditure and Reform who greatly assisted with this project by awarding our Publications & Images Department with a grant under the Open Data Engagement Fund 2020.