10 Sources For Free Art Downloads

You can find tons of free art online to download if you know where to look. I’m a rabid proponent of buying original artwork and supporting artists, but sometimes you just don’t have 12 million dollars to spend at Sothebys.

Since there is an overwhelming amount of free artwork to be found online, I will assist you by sharing super-high-quality art resources, and also giving you a little preview of what to expect when you click over.

Go ahead and save everything you love to a file. You can print out several pieces and make a vast gallery wall in your panic room, one in your dressing chamber, and even one for the maid’s room.

Here’s a tip: Start a Pinterest board to save your art finds to, then you can go back for a second look later and actually print out your faves.

The NY Public Library

The NY Public Library has loads of digitized items for your downloading pleasure, and I love all the old amazing book illustrations. You’ll have no trouble finding gorgeous prints for your home if you are into these:

Unsplash

Unsplash is a site that content creators turn to for free, high-quality stock photos and graphics. It’s packed full of good stuff you can use in any way imaginable, including hanging on your wall!

If you use the work you find on Unsplash anywhere except as artwork in your home, be sure to credit the creator of the work. (You’ll be given a link on Unsplash).

The Met

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a huge open access selection to choose from, and you can filter by material, era, and more to narrow down the huge number of options a bit.

Scroll their works, and you might find something you wouldn’t have normally been looking for.

Like this beautiful house plan from 1836.

Or these:

Rijksmuseum

If you are a sucker for the old Dutch Masters, you will geek out over what you can download from Rijksmuseum.

I mean, doesn’t everyone need a small framed Rembrandt or Vermeer in their home?

The best part of downloading from the Rijksmuseum site is that it is a fun time – they not only offer us all their goods for free at a high resolution, they encourage playing around with the images, cropping and downloading your favorite part of a painting.

Look how amazing this close up of the frilly neckpiece is. THOSE HIGHLIGHTS.

National Gallery of Art

You’ll have a field day scrolling through the artwork at The National Gallery of Art. There are so many beautiful Medieval paintings to go all close-up on. We are so lucky to be able to gawk at these works that aren’t on public view.

I mean, look at this Giotto action.

Kaboompics

Kaboompics is awesome! They’re like the quality of Unsplash, but with more stylized, product-y sort of photos, if that makes sense. You’ll get some great photos of flowers and food at Kaboompics.

The Graphics Fairy

If you are a fan of vintage, you will LOVE The Graphics Fairy. Yes, love. Love love love.

She’s been giving us incredible vintage images for years, and she’s got plenty of free gems to download from her site.

Smithsonian

Smithsonian Open Access has MILLIONS of images for us to grab and do anything we want to with!

What also sets the Smithsonian site apart is that they encourage us to use their images and even feature a few artists on the site who have used their images to make their own art.

Flickr

Flickr is the long-running site for photographers to share their work, and lucky us – some of them are free to download! It can get a little confusing on Flickr if you get lost in all of the galleries and collections, so be sure to refer to the license of the individual work you like, to see if you can download it.

Here is a little tip for searching for images you can download from Flickr:

• Go to the advanced search page.
• Click the little caret next to “Any license”.
• Select “All Creative Commons”.
• Enter your search terms in the search box, or hit one of the small color or style rectangles to browse visually.

One More Idea for Free Wall Art

Think outside the bun when it comes to decorating the walls of your home. You can make your favorite quotes into wall art for free by typing them into Typeslab and printing them out. Typeslab simply generates a cool poster out of your words, and you can play around with how it looks before you print and frame it.

Related: 365 Drawing Ideas for Your Sketchbook

To Print or Have Printed

I royally suck at printing out my own stuff. That, or my expectations are waaaay too high for home printing. Plus I have a fairly cheap printer and zero patience for re-printing if there is a streak or flaw of any sort.

That’s why I happily turn to professional printers and fork out the few dollars it takes to print each piece archivally, on good, thick paper. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, printing companies.

I use Printful for all my stuff, and love them. The poster paper is nice and thick, printing is clear and colorful, and you can choose from many sizes.

Unless you are on a really tight budget, I absolutely recommend just having your downloads printed.

Related: Over 200 Art Quotes and Captions for Instagram

But How do I Hang all my Free Art in my Home?

Cheap, cute frames! You can always go the clipboard route, but I feel like that would get old fast. Here are some places to find frames, and remember to get some gallery wall ideas here.

I am so curious to see what you end up printing out and hanging up, so do me a favor and tag @artmakespeople on social media to show me your style!

Pssst – grab some cool free Halloween art downloads here.