What it does
Van Gogh Museum’s digital catalogues present collection images with artwork credits and research essays. Their image-use guidance distinguishes noncommercial reuse, commercial requests and photographs owned by other institutions.
The entry for Gauguin’s Vincent van Gogh Painting Sunflowers places the painting beside related works, preparatory studies and a detail photographed under raking light. The individual captions identify the holding museums and photographers, so the illustrations within one essay do not all share the same rights.
The catalogue permits museum collection images to be downloaded and distributed for noncommercial uses such as research, teaching, nonprofit publications and personal websites. Include the full artwork credit from Object Details. Images still under copyright require an additional permission enquiry, with Pictoright named as the contact.
Commercial use goes through the museum’s image application form. Third-party photographs must be requested from their owners. The catalogue’s CC BY-NC-SA licence covers its texts; images have the separate conditions described above.
Strengths
- Scholarly entries connect reproductions with comparative images and artwork research.
- Captions distinguish museum collection images from third-party photographs.
Watch out for
- One catalogue essay can contain images with several different rights holders.
Best for
- Editors researching Van Gogh Museum works and their reproduction permissions