The Smithsonian, a famous American scientific research institute based in Washington, will please all art lovers.
In fact, a database of more than 40 000 œuvres d'art from the Freer and Sackler galleries has just been put online. This database is among the largest collections of Asian and American art.
entitled Open F|S, this database is accessible at this address. It allows you to consult and even download a whole series of works in high resolution, most of which had never been made accessible to the public. The site itself deserves some improvements (which are planned) but the quality of the database is worth the detour.
Images may be used for non-commercial purposes. The Smithsonian strongly encourages you to use these representations for artistic, educational, or personal projects as long as they are not for marketing or resale.
Each publication is represented by a high-resolution image (several images in some cases) accompanied by a brief description. More complicated objects such as books or manuscripts have an image for each of the most interesting pages.
In short, if you are an art fanatic you should be able to find what you are looking for here! I'll let you discover this excellent initiative!
See the Smithsonian press release
Article updated on March 31, 2025 by Byothe
