The Bridgeman Art Library, based in London, Paris, New York and Berlin, provides one of the largest archives for reproductions of works of art in the world. Founded in 1972 by
Harriet Bridgeman, the Bridgeman Art Library cooperates with many
art galleries
An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lo ...
and
museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical
History (derived ) is the systematic study and th ...
s to gather
image
An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensio ...
s
and footage for licensing.
The library today
The Bridgeman Art Library is a company that represents museums, art collections and artists throughout the world by providing a central source of fine art and photography for image users.
The company's aim is to make these images accessible for users on a commercial basis; each one has been catalogued with full picture data and key-worded to simplify the search process. A full research service is also provided whereby expert researchers can select images to the customer's requirements. In addition to fine art, designs, antiques, maps, architecture, furniture, art glass, ceramics, anthropological artefacts- and many other media are featured in the collection.
Bridgeman also provides customers with reproduction licensing and offers advice on how to clear artist's copyright, if additional permission is needed. Copyright holders receive remuneration in the form of half the reproduction fee paid by the customer. As well as supplying images to consumers, Bridgeman works with copyright holders to create high quality reproductions of artists' works using the latest imaging technology. These reproductions can be ordered through various Web sites and apps such as
Art Authority. Over 500 new images are added to the Bridgeman archive each week. Museums represented in the archive include the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...
; the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...
; the National Galleries of
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...
,
Sweden and
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...
; the
Hamburg Kunsthalle; and the
Barnes Foundation
The Barnes Foundation is an art collection and educational institution promoting the appreciation of art and horticulture. Originally in Merion, the art collection moved in 2012 to a new building on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Penn ...
.
Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp.
The company was involved in the case ''
Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp.
''Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp.'', 36 F. Supp. 2d 191 (S.D.N.Y. 1999), was a decision by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, which ruled that exact photographic copies of public domain images could not ...
'', in which the
ruled that exact photographic copies of two-dimensional works in the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...
cannot be copyrighted, even if making the image takes considerable
effort, because the resulting works lack
originality
Originality is the aspect of created or invented works that distinguish them from reproductions, clones, forgeries, or substantially derivative works. The modern idea of originality is according to some scholars tied to Romanticism, by a notion t ...
.
See also
*
List of online image archives
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Publishing companies established in 1972
Museum companies
Companies based in the City of Westminster
Visual arts publishing companies
Photo archives in the United Kingdom
Stock photography