Images from the Internet Archive (
www.archive.org) always need a lot of work to get them ready to go out in public. And I am so discouraged with Google Images, Pintarest, and Tumblr, with the (mostly) tiny, low-low-low resolution, heavily compressed images covered with artifacts. How about you?
If you are on the prowl for some "classical" paintings and engravings for illustrations or book covers, I found a couple of great sites for high-resolution PUBLIC DOMAIN images.
The Athenaeum offers thousands of high-res images, completely free of charge. They have a very large collection, and adding more all the time.
http://www.the-athenaeum.org
The Art Renewal Center also offers images. Many hi-res images are freely accessible to everyone. Some hi-res images are only accessible by members with free account. Some other hi-res images are only available to paid members. But there are lots of free ones.
http://www.artrenewal.org/
Good old
Wikimedia has some good offerings, but sad to say, too many of them are low-resolution. But, with luck, you might find exactly what you need.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images
A couple of sources good for a research point, if you are looking for a certain genre or artist, are commercial sites that sell their images -- but just scrolling through their offerings can give you a starting point to go on a hunt for a special image.
www.bridgemanimages.com
http://www.scholarsresource.com
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Do you have some great sites to share? Post them here!
Thanks.