Art History: Web Resources

The British Museum was founded in 1753, the first national public museum in the world. From the beginning it granted free admission to all 'studious and curious persons'. Visitor numbers have grown from around 5,000 a year in the eighteenth century to nearly 6 million today.

The Chrysler Museum of Art is home to an encyclopedic collection of nearly 40,000 objects spanning nearly 5,000 years of history. Highlights include an impressive and comprehensive survey of European and American painting and sculpture, a world-renowned glass collection, a rich photography program, Art Nouveau furniture, as well as African, Asian, Egyptian, Pre-Columbian and Islamic art.

The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center in Los Angeles houses European paintings, drawings, sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, decorative arts, and photography from its beginnings to the present, gathered internationally.

Founded in 1793 as a museum for all, it celebrates humanity's long journey with the remarkable scope of a collection that spans thousands of years, reaches from America to the borders of India and China, and is highlighted by such iconic, universally admired works as the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and the Victory of Samothrace.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the world's largest and finest art museums. Its collections include more than two million works of art spanning five thousand years of world culture, from prehistory to the present and from every part of the globe.

With extraordinary exhibitions and the world's finest collection of modern and contemporary art, MoMA is dedicated to the conversation between the past and the present, the established and the experimental.

National Gallery of Art is to serve the United States of America in a national role by preserving, collecting, exhibiting, and fostering the understanding of works of art, at the highest possible museum and scholarly standards.

One of four Tate museums in England, the Tate Modern is located in London and houses international and modern contemporary art. Their mission is to increase the public’s enjoyment and understanding of British art from the 16th century to the present day and of international modern and contemporary art

This site has links to reliable information, and is organized by art historical periods. Very easy for Art History students to benefit from. It also has links to Museums, Google Art Projects sites, Artists Information and lots more. One of the earliest and best Art History links sites, pioneered and maintained by Chris Witcombe at Sweet Briar.

The Getty Research Institute is dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts and their various histories through its expertise, active collecting program, public programs, institutional collaborations, exhibitions, publications, digital services, and residential scholars programs.

A useful website with reliable information about and images of modern art (late 19th & 20th Century Art). Includes a link to their Glossary of Art Terms.

An open, not-for-profit, art history textbook.

Search over 4.6 million records, with 421,600 images, video and sound files from Smithsonian museums, archives, and libraries.