The National Gallery of Art has launched NGA Images at http://images.nga.gov.  NGA Images is a digital image repository of National Gallery of Art collections, which allows users to search, browse, share, and download images believed to be in the public domain.  Many of the open access images have been digitized with the generous support of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.

20,000 Open Access Digital Images

NGA Images homepage

NGA Images hold more that 20,000 images that can be downloaded and used for free.  The site includes a reproduction guide (PDF) and a large help section.  There is a Quick and and Advanced Search option and browsable collections prepared by Gallery staff (e.g. on 19th Century French Art)

Courtesy of National Gallery of Art, Washington

Other features for users include the ability to create one or more “lightboxes,” or images sets, and to save, share, and download multiple images at a time. Users may add individual labels and notes to their lightboxes or to images within them. Links to users’ customized lightboxes may be shared via e-mail or may be copied and pasted to social media sites.

Open Access Policy

With the launch of NGA Images, the National Gallery of Art implements an open access policy for digital images of works of art that the Gallery believes to be in the public domain (those not subject to copyright protection). Under the open access policy, users may download any of these images free of charge and without seeking authorization from the Gallery for any use, commercial or non-commercial.  More information about the policy is available at http://images.nga.gov/openaccess.