Free Art That Won't Get You Sued

I get it. You wrote this great article and you want an equally great artwork to go along with it. If you had the cash you'd hire someone, but you can't, so you go to a free image site and all the images suck and are just too generic. Then you try to doodle something... but it doesn't quite hit. So you go to AI. As an artist, it pains me to see AI art become so prevalent. I can't stop you from using AI to create images for your articles, but I can offer you resources to help you find free art to use, hoping you'll end up relying on AI a little less and these great artworks will continue to be enjoyed.

These sites allow free use of the images with permission to use the artwork commercially. Not every gallery allows commercial use, but the ones in this list do. I found them while working as a Graphic Designer and Illustrator on a TV show, where the legal guidelines were very strict. If you need to, you can get full written permission in a few clicks (like if you need it for your publisher's legal).

The available artwork is mind-blowingly good. These artworks were so good that the museum decided they were worth keeping. And now, because the artist is long dead and the work is in the public domain, you can use the art to attract more readers.

Each gallery's search and offerings are a little different; for some, all the searchable artwork is automatically in the public domain, for others, you just need to hit the Public Domain or Open Source checkbox when doing the search and all the images that come up are completely legal to use commercially however you want. Heck, you can stick it on a t-shirt and sell it if you so wanted.

I suggest using one site at a time for a few of your articles, then switching it up. Each site is different and offers different styles and vibes. Once you go through a few, you'll learn the ones that resonate with you most.

Disclaimer

I've done my best to double check that every resource is fully in the public domain and I've even used them in my own commercial projects. But I can make mistakes, and policies can change. Please use this as a starting point and check that the licenses fit your needs.

Free Art Resources

Cleveland Museum of Art (check "Open Access")

Birmingham Museum (set Usage Rights to "CC0-Public Domain")

The Getty Museum (check "Open Content Images")

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (check "Show Public Domain Images Only")

Lenbachhaus (under "How to Use" select "With Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)")

Library of Congress

National Gallery of Art (click "Image Download Available")

New York Public Library (select "Public Domain" under "Show Only")

Paris Museum (select "Images Libres De Droit")

Polona Museum (select "Show only objects available online" under Protected by Copyright)

Rijks Museum (create account to download, only Public Domain artworks available)

Smithsonian Museum (select "Open Access Media (CC0)")

SMK Open (check "free to use")

Art Institute of Chicago (check "Public Domain" under "Show Only")

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (click "Public Domain Images")

Toronto Public Library (click "Show Only Public Domain")

Walters Art Museum (check "CC Creative Commons License")

Wellcome Collection (select "Public Domain Mark" under Licences)

Yale University Art Gallery (check "Open Access")

Yale Centre for British Art (select "Free to Use" under Image Use)