The Metropolitan Museum has just made a stunning announcement: 375,000 images from its collections will be made available for free use.
That’s right: free use. As in, you can use the images freely for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. You can even adapt, modify or build on them. This initiative has come about through the Met’s Open Access policy and is being operationalized via Creative Commons. You can read all about it in this post from the Met’s Facebook page: http://mymodernmet.com/metropolitan-museum-of-art-open-access/
For us, here at Versailles Century, this obviously means worry-free, user-friendly access to hundreds of images of the Château, its contents, and its surroundings. As a foretaste, here are some images of Versailles from the Met’s collections.
A view of the Château from the courtyard by Sylvestre:
“Château de Versailles seen from the forecourt, from Chalcographie du Louvre, Vol. 22” by Israel Silvestre (French, Nancy 1621–1691 Paris) via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC0 1.0
A general view by Perelle:
“Veüe generale du chateau de Versailles” by Adam Perelle (French, Paris 1640–1695 Paris), Published by Nicolas Langlois (French, Paris 1640–1703) , Paris via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC0 1.0
A panoramic view from the gardens by Lespinasse:
“The Château de Versailles Seen from the Gardens” by Louis Nicolas de Lespinasse, called the Chevalier de Lespinasse (French, Pouilly-sur-Loire 1734–1808 Paris), Formerly attributed to Anonymous, French, 18th century via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC0 1.0
An early view from the gardens before the addition of the two great wings to the north and south of the centre block:
“Veue du chasteau de Versailles (View of Versailles, garden facade)” by Adam Perelle (French, Paris 1640–1695 Paris), Etched by Israel Silvestre (French, Nancy 1621–1691 Paris), Nicolas Langlois (French, Paris 1640–1703) via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC0 1.0
Finally, a distant view from the southwest, again by Lespinasse:
“Versailles Seen from the Southwest” by Louis Nicolas de Lespinasse, called the Chevalier de Lespinasse (French, Pouilly-sur-Loire 1734–1808 Paris), Formerly attributed to Anonymous, French, 18th century via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC0 1.0
I can testify from preparing this blog post that it’s incredibly easy to search for the Met images on the Creative Commons website — just click the Met button after typing in your search terms — and then download and attribute them. I look forward to bringing you many, many more images courtesy of the Met and Creative Commons, to whom I think we all owe a debt of gratitude!
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