Download Free Digitized Art Through the Art Institute of Chicago Website

Art Institute of Chicago Makes Thousands of Hi-Res Images Available for Free

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Gustave Caillebotte, “Paris Street; Rainy Day,” 1877

Chicago is a city steeped in art and culture. In addition to its iconic public sculptures, it boasts one of the oldest and largest museums in the country: the Art Institute of Chicago. While a real-life visit to this historic institution should be on all art lovers' lists, a recent website redesign has made it easy to experience its collection with the click of a mouse.

The museum has reproduced thousands of high-resolution images of its art and released a substantial amount into the public domain. This means that, under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, students, educators, and even everyday art lovers can download this digitized art for free.

Additionally, the Art Institute of Chicago has also enhanced the quality of its digital reproductions. This means that pieces can be explored and examined in greater detail, allowing people to appreciate “the paint strokes in Van Gogh's The Bedroom, the charcoal details on Charles White's Harvest Talk, or the synaesthetic richness of Georgia O'Keeffe's Blue and Green Music” through the screens of their devices.

While many people will undoubtedly visit the website to view world-famous works like Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte and Hopper's Nighthawks, the museum hopes that this redesign will also make its less prominent pieces more visible to the public. “Through features such as our recommendation engine, we are making efforts to surface lesser-known artworks that are just as interesting but may be under the radar,” Michael Neault, the museum's Executive Director of Digital Experience says. “So hopefully you’ll discover some new friends along the way.”

To dig through this digital treasure trove, stop by the Art Institute of Chicago's revamped website.

Explore and download digitized art from the acclaimed Art Institute of Chicago.

Georges Seurat, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” 1884

Claude Monet, “Water Lilies,” 1906

Mary Cassatt, “The Child's Bath,” 1893

Katsushika Hokusai, “Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as the Great Wave, from the series “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei)” c. 1830-1833