visual sources | Bodleian History Faculty Library at Oxford

Your Paintings is a website created by the BBC and the Public Catalogue Forum, which aims to show the entire UK national collection of oil paintings, the stories behind the paintings, and where to see them for real. It is made up of paintings from thousands of museums and other public institutions around the country. There are around 212,000 records for paintings from over 3000 locations on the site. Most records have a digital image of the painting, along with details of where the original painting is located.

The site can be browsed by painting title, artist or the geographical location of the collection or gallery, and also searched by keyword. This free resource will be of interest to historians from a variety of fields, as well as history of art scholars. Keyword searches reveal paintings of World War One trenches, many medical-related images and key figures in history from across the globe.

Painting from the Bodleian Libraries and other places in Oxford

The Bodleian Libraries section of the site contains over 330 oil paintings. These are mainly portraits of people linked to the Bodleian Libraries, royalty and images of the decorated ceilings in the Bodleian Library.

There are also collections from other parts of the University (e.g. Pitt Rivers Museum), colleges and halls (including Oriel, Brasenose, St Stephen’s) and Oxford Brookes University. Many other places in Oxfordshire have also contributed images including municipal buildings, schools and museums.

These ARTstor additions should be of interest to historians of medieval and early modern English and European history:

“ARTstor is collaborating with Sarah N. James to add more than 450 images of Italian architecture and painting and more than 400 images of English art and architecture to the Digital Library. The new images will join James’s collection of more than 600 images of Italian and English architecture. The collection currently centers on England, including cathedrals and parish churches from the Norman Romanesque period; ecclesiastical buildings in the early English, decorated, and perpendicular styles; medieval secular architecture including castles, marketplaces, and town halls; perpendicular gothic collegiate buildings; and Tudor, Elizabethan, baroque, and neoclassical country houses and churches. Photographed in situ during James’ travels throughout Europe, the images provide contextual views of sculpture and architecture from various angles.

View the collection in the ARTstor’s Digital Library:

For more detailed information about this collection, visit European Architecture and Sculpture (Sara N. James) collection page.”

[ARTstor 11 April 2011]

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Tag Archives: visual sources

Bodleian Libraries paintings on BBC Your Paintings website

ARTstor news: Additional images of European architecture and sculpture images by Sarah N. James