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Artvee – Download Hi-Res Public Domain Art, Posters and Illustrations

245 points by therecb 6y ago

dutchbrit 6y ago
I remember this being shown a few months back, I believe it went offline for a while (mistake me if I'm wrong) but glad to see it back. Any new features added since the last time?
- mkl 6y ago
  That discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23491940 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23491940
mkl 6y ago
This looks amazing. I have long wanted to crawl some of the big museum collections, and you've done tons of them. How much space do all the images take up altogether? How many images in total? Some feedback: The "About Us" etc. links at the bottom are hard to click on the main page, as the infinite scroll moves them as soon as you get there. I also managed to get Chrome to peg a CPU core at 100% and essentially block the tab by scrolling down for a few minutes. A pagination system would make longer (> a couple of minutes) painting browsing sessions much more stable/possible.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
ykevinator 6y ago
This is fantastic
dade_ 6y ago
Awesome. Looks like a great source of images for a picture frame TV. Thanks!
vr46 6y ago
Brilliant, I ended up having to pay Alamy lots of cash earlier in the year to buy high-res artwork so I could print for personal use.
Waterluvian 6y ago
Thank you for making this. I’m enjoying scrolling through art I typically wouldn’t have sought out myself.
ystad 6y ago
Nice, however the site is pretty slow to load for me
robin_reala 6y ago
The big problem with Artvee remains that they don’t link back to the image source, which would prove whether it’s properly public domain or not. As it stands you have to take them at their word.
- sudobash1 6y ago
  IANAL (and I am linking to Wikipedia) but I don't believe this is a problem in the US (as long as the painting is out of copywrite) due to Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgeman_Art_Library_v._Corel_Corp https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgeman_Art_Library_v._Cor.... In Germany on the other hand, things are different: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11983043 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11983043
  - robin_reala 6y ago
    Yes, but how do you know the original image is out of copyright? It’s mostly obvious for older pieces, but for newer ones it’s not always obvious when an artist painted a work. Even with apparently older images, the worry is that the photo is actually of a reworking of an older piece that isn’t out of copyright. This would be solved by linking each photo back to the originating gallery. (I contribute to Standard Ebooks – https://standardebooks.org/ https://standardebooks.org/ – and would like to use Artvee’s imagery for covers, but without a link back to the originating site to check for a CC0 grant it ends up being a trawl through Hathi looking for photographic proof that the image is out of copyright.)
pseingatl 6y ago
Download=nothing happens. Yet another login and account required.
- lilgreenland 6y ago
  I downloaded fine, without an account.
- yepthatsreality 6y ago
  If you’d like to avoid giving away your info, you may consider using a temporary email address.
JohnJamesRambo 6y ago
Saving this one for sure, thank you.
setib 6y ago
Thanks a lot, I didn't expect I would enjoy scrolling through old paintings like I did! Would you consider introducing a comment section? I'm mostly interested in a few words about the context of the painting or understand some weird elements on the painting, and I'm pretty convinced a comment section would do the job.
eigenvalue 6y ago
I love this site and visit it at least once or twice a week. It’s like going to a museum for me. It helps that I have an insanely high resolution screen which makes everything look beautiful. One of the best parts of the site is that it lets you download even more extreme high resolution versions, which I often do for my favorite artworks. I also love the design and typography of the site.
rswail 6y ago
Awesome rabbit hole!
SnowingXIV 6y ago
This is pretty neat. I’m currently building a house and was planning to throw up some art pieces. Could you download these and send them to Sam’s Club or something to get them printed or would/is there anything wrong with that?
- dubcanada 6y ago
  Nope you can totally do this. I run an Etsy store where I do something similar to that.
Naac 6y ago
This is great, it would be fantastic if this site had an API available. A small bug, I can't click on the footer of the website ( About Us, etc.) because the images keep auto-loading and pushing the footer down again.
nitrogen 6y ago
A lot of the old portraits of men show one hand inside their jacket. What is that symbolizing?

245 points by therecb 6y ago

I remember this being shown a few months back, I believe it went offline for a while (mistake me if I'm wrong) but glad to see it back. Any new features added since the last time?

mkl 6y ago
That discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23491940 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23491940

mkl 6y ago

This looks amazing. I have long wanted to crawl some of the big museum collections, and you've done tons of them. How much space do all the images take up altogether? How many images in total? Some feedback: The "About Us" etc. links at the bottom are hard to click on the main page, as the infinite scroll moves them as soon as you get there. I also managed to get Chrome to peg a CPU core at 100% and essentially block the tab by scrolling down for a few minutes. A pagination system would make longer (> a couple of minutes) painting browsing sessions much more stable/possible.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

ykevinator 6y ago

This is fantastic

dade_ 6y ago

Awesome. Looks like a great source of images for a picture frame TV. Thanks!

vr46 6y ago

Brilliant, I ended up having to pay Alamy lots of cash earlier in the year to buy high-res artwork so I could print for personal use.

Waterluvian 6y ago

Thank you for making this. I’m enjoying scrolling through art I typically wouldn’t have sought out myself.

ystad 6y ago

Nice, however the site is pretty slow to load for me

robin_reala 6y ago

The big problem with Artvee remains that they don’t link back to the image source, which would prove whether it’s properly public domain or not. As it stands you have to take them at their word.

sudobash1 6y ago
IANAL (and I am linking to Wikipedia) but I don't believe this is a problem in the US (as long as the painting is out of copywrite) due to Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgeman_Art_Library_v._Corel_Corp https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgeman_Art_Library_v._Cor.... In Germany on the other hand, things are different: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11983043 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11983043
- robin_reala 6y ago
  Yes, but how do you know the original image is out of copyright? It’s mostly obvious for older pieces, but for newer ones it’s not always obvious when an artist painted a work. Even with apparently older images, the worry is that the photo is actually of a reworking of an older piece that isn’t out of copyright. This would be solved by linking each photo back to the originating gallery. (I contribute to Standard Ebooks – https://standardebooks.org/ https://standardebooks.org/ – and would like to use Artvee’s imagery for covers, but without a link back to the originating site to check for a CC0 grant it ends up being a trawl through Hathi looking for photographic proof that the image is out of copyright.)

pseingatl 6y ago

Download=nothing happens. Yet another login and account required.

lilgreenland 6y ago
I downloaded fine, without an account.
yepthatsreality 6y ago
If you’d like to avoid giving away your info, you may consider using a temporary email address.

JohnJamesRambo 6y ago

Saving this one for sure, thank you.

setib 6y ago

Thanks a lot, I didn't expect I would enjoy scrolling through old paintings like I did! Would you consider introducing a comment section? I'm mostly interested in a few words about the context of the painting or understand some weird elements on the painting, and I'm pretty convinced a comment section would do the job.

eigenvalue 6y ago

I love this site and visit it at least once or twice a week. It’s like going to a museum for me. It helps that I have an insanely high resolution screen which makes everything look beautiful. One of the best parts of the site is that it lets you download even more extreme high resolution versions, which I often do for my favorite artworks. I also love the design and typography of the site.

rswail 6y ago

Awesome rabbit hole!

SnowingXIV 6y ago

This is pretty neat. I’m currently building a house and was planning to throw up some art pieces. Could you download these and send them to Sam’s Club or something to get them printed or would/is there anything wrong with that?

dubcanada 6y ago
Nope you can totally do this. I run an Etsy store where I do something similar to that.

Naac 6y ago

This is great, it would be fantastic if this site had an API available. A small bug, I can't click on the footer of the website ( About Us, etc.) because the images keep auto-loading and pushing the footer down again.

nitrogen 6y ago

A lot of the old portraits of men show one hand inside their jacket. What is that symbolizing?