Public-Domain Paintings: What You Can and Cannot Do

Every painting on this site is free to use, and that freedom rests on two separate things: the painting’s copyright has run out, and the museum has released its photograph of the painting for anyone to use. Here is what that means in practice.

What public domain means

Copyright protects a creative work for a limited time. When that time runs out, the work enters the public domain, and from then on it belongs to everyone. In most of the world the term ends 70 years after the artist’s death. In the United States, works published before 1931 are in the public domain, and the rules for later works depend on when and how they were first published. The painters here, from Leonardo to Monet, Cassatt and van Gogh, died long enough ago that their paintings are in the public domain.

What CC0 adds

A painting is one thing; a photograph of it is another. A museum spends real money photographing its collection, and some museums keep their photographs to themselves. The four museums this collection draws from, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Cleveland Museum of Art, have released their photographs of public-domain works under Creative Commons Zero (CC0). CC0 is a dedication to the public domain: the museum waives whatever rights it might have in the photograph. It adds no new restriction.

What you can do

• Print a painting at any size, for your own walls or as a gift.
• Sell prints, cards, calendars, fabric, phone cases and anything else.
• Change it: crop it, recolor it, combine it with your own work.
• Use it commercially, in advertising, book covers, packaging or interiors for clients, without asking or paying anyone.

What to avoid

Implying endorsement. A painting’s title and its artist’s name are free to use, but museum names and logos are trademarks. Do not suggest that a museum made, approved or sells your product: “a print of a painting in the National Gallery of Art” is fine, an “official National Gallery print” is not.

Passing off. Selling a print as an original, or as a hand-painted copy when it is not, is misleading whatever the copyright.

Assuming every image online is free. A photograph of a public-domain painting on another website may carry its own terms. Start from the museum’s file, which every painting page here links to under “Download”.

Outside the United States

The museums’ CC0 dedication applies everywhere, but national laws differ. Some countries recognize moral rights, which protect an artist’s name and the integrity of the work and can outlast copyright. A few have their own rules about photographs of artworks. If you sell abroad, especially in quantity, check the rules where you sell.

Credit: good manners, not a rule

CC0 asks for nothing in return. A short credit line, the title, the artist, the date and the museum, is still worth adding: it tells your customers what they are looking at and thanks the museum for sharing. Each painting page carries a courtesy line you can copy, and the license page sets out the museums’ terms.

Why some famous artists are missing

Many twentieth-century artists are still in copyright. Picasso (died 1973), Edward Hopper (1967) and Georgia O’Keeffe (1986), among many others, died too recently, and as a rule only artists who died more than 70 years ago are out of copyright in most countries. Other famous works are in the public domain but belong to museums that do not share open-access photographs, which is why The Starry Night is not here. This collection uses only photographs that museums have released for any use.

Finding the original file

Each painting page links to the museum’s record and to its largest image. Start there, then see the printing guide for resolution and paper. To browse, start from the paintings for a room, such as the bedroom, or from all paintings.