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Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific
Using Lightboxes
Crediting your images
Printing out images
Images available offline
Use Quick Search
This is the best starting point for searching and queries our entire database on a free text search basis. Enter relevant keywords or combinations of keywords to home in on the perfect picture.
If you want to exclude images with a particular keyword from your results, enter a minus sign in front of the word.
Shortcuts
When searching on a word of fewer than three letters you must use the Quick Search / Exact option and include this one/two letter word as part of a phrase or at least three words. For example, if you want to search for paintings of the RIVER PO in Italy use Quick Search /Exact. If you search on PO alone no results will show.
Copyright cleared imagery
If you wish to avoid having to pay an artists' copyright fee on top of our image reproduction fee, you can search for images that are out of copyright. To do this, add the phrase outofcopyright (no spaces) to your search words to restrict the images you are shown. Those flagged on our system as being out of copyright in the country of the origin of the artist will remain.*
You can also choose to restrict your searches to Bridgeman Artists' material. This way, the Library can clear the permission for you. The shortcuts for these works are:
!CONT For works by Bridgeman Contemporary Artists
!BACS For works by Bridgeman Artists' Copyright Service artists
*Generally, this will mean that these works are out of copyright worldwide, but please note that our copyright flagging is, by necessity, a simplification of legislation. Therefore, you should always satisfy yourself that extra clearances are not required before publishing the images.
Be careful with ambiguous keywords
The search system will not distinguish between multiple meanings of the same word. For example if you type READING you will retrieve both imagery of the English town called Reading, works of art located in Reading and pictures of people reading etc. In this case you could go to:
Advanced Search/Location for paintings located in Reading, UK.
Advanced Search/Keyword or Advanced Search/Title for depictions of the town of Reading, UK.
Advanced Search/Category/Reading and Writing for images of people reading.
Use Categories in Advanced Search as a starting point
In Advanced Search you can search the archive by Category ie. broad topic; for example; cats, classical sculpture, fashion. Some categories are sub-divided such as Ethnography: Africa, America, Australasia, Exploration, Maps and South America. Each category contains a large number of images so you will have a good selection ready made to narrow down.
Refine search results using search fields in Advanced Search
This is useful if you want to exclude certain images which you know will come up in a Quick Search. For example, if you want paintings by Monet rather than portraits of him by other artists, go to Advanced Search and enter MONET in the Artist field. This method of searching will also retrieve images catalogued many years ago that may not have been as fully keyworded as more recently acquired images.
Search by the century of the work of art using Quick Search or Advanced Search
The quickest place to search by Century is Advanced Search/Century. Select from the drop down list and go straight to results which show works by artists alive or most active in that century. You can also use Quick Search for this; enter abbreviations such as 20thC or C20th.
Try fewer keywords
The fewer keywords you enter, the larger the resulting selection. In Quick Search use the 'ANY' option to select every image with at least one of your keywords.
Use related keywords
Always try as large a selection of words related to your search as possible. For example, try the keyword HOUND after running a search on the keyword DOG. Try different ways of phrasing your keywords e.g. 'girls dancing' and 'girls dance'.
Be aware of spelling variations
Spelling variations and language differences can affect your search. For example for views of ST MARKS, VENICE also try searching SAN MARCO. For pictures of Mohammad II, also try MOHAMMED II. Similarly try ALIXI, ALEXEI, ALEXY etc. The search system also recognises full stops. This means that if you were, for example, searching for images relating to Saint Sebastien, you should search using both SAINT SEBASTIEN, ST. SEBASTIEN and ST SEBASTIEN. When searching for a man or a woman, use MALE and FEMALE as keywords.
Call a Bridgeman Picture Researcher
Call us for immediate assistance with searching and keyword ideas or request Expert Help from our team of professionals.
See how Bridgeman Researchers have solved similar project briefs by visiting Inspiration for search ideas.
