Barnes Foundation Open Access & Copyright Considerations
Through the Barnes Online Collection, digital images of more than 2,000 works of art in the Barnes Foundation’s collection are available to the public. The Barnes Foundation (the “Barnes”) encourages use, enjoyment, and sharing of these images while respecting artists’ rights and copyright. Each work in the Barnes Online Collection is assigned a “rights statement” that helps communicate our best assessment of the copyright status of the work. By clicking on the copyright status under each image, you can read the full text of the rights statement. The following is a brief overview of the rights categories:
Public Domain
The “Public Domain” categorization is used when the Barnes believes a work to be free of known restrictions under copyright law. The Barnes makes the images available for high-resolution download without charge for any use, commercial or non-commercial.
Please note that due to the complexity of U.S. copyright laws and the frequent revisions that they have undergone, some works by a given artist may be classified as being under copyright, while other works by the same artist are identified as being in the public domain.
In Copyright
Images of works that are classified as being protected by copyright will be available in the Online Collection in low resolution only and are not downloadable. You may submit a request for a high-resolution image by filling out a High-Resolution Image Request Form.
For permission to reproduce images that include ©ARS in their credit line, please contact the Artists Rights Society (ARS).
Copyright Undetermined
The categorization “Copyright Undetermined” is used when the copyright status of the work has been reviewed by the Barnes but the Barnes has been unable to make a conclusive determination as to the copyright status of the work. This may be because the Barnes is missing key facts essential to making an accurate copyright status determination. Images of works that are classified under this category will be available in the Online Collection in low resolution and are not downloadable. You may submit a request for a high-resolution image by filling out a High-Resolution Image Request Form.
If you have more information about the copyright status of a work, or you believe we have made an error in a classification, please let us know.
For additional information on U.S. copyright laws, we invite you to consult the U.S. Copyright Office’s website and its online resources.
Barnes Policy
The Barnes respects copyright and other intellectual property rights, including the exemption from copyright restrictions under the doctrine of fair use. Images of works that are not identified as being in the public domain are provided for personal, non-commercial, scholarly, research, news reporting, commentary, educational, and general viewing purposes, or any other purpose that qualifies as fair use under U.S. copyright laws.
While the Barnes is sharing its current determinations regarding the copyright status of works in its collection, the Barnes can only give permission with regard to the rights it has, and makes no warranties or representations that use of any of the images will not violate rights of third parties other than the Barnes.
The Barnes requests (but does not require) that users of images made available through this website include the following credit line to enable others to identify and locate more information about the image:
Courtesy of the Barnes Foundation, Merion and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Barnes also requests that if high-resolution images provided on this website are used in a publication, that the publisher provide the Barnes with bibliographic information about the information to be included in our object records and on this website, and a copy of the publication for our library.
The Barnes has made a good faith effort to determine the copyright status of each work in the Online Collection, but cannot guarantee that the copyright statements are always correct. The copyright determinations have been made based on the information found in the sources listed in the publication bibliography of each work. The Barnes reserves the right to change the rights statement of any work in the Online Collection at any time, whether it is because of the work falling into the public domain, new information emerging, or for any other reason.
If you choose to make use of images from the Online Collection, you understand that you are doing so at your own risk. The Barnes does not warrant that the use of any images on its website will not infringe the rights of third parties. It remains your responsibility to clear any third-party rights that may exist in the underlying work, and you agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the Barnes from and against any claims, actions, damages, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising from your unauthorized use of a work.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
The Barnes respects the intellectual property of others, and asks users of the Barnes website to do the same. The Barnes may, in certain circumstances and at its sole discretion, take reasonable steps to disable or terminate access to the website to users who may be repeat infringers of intellectual property or other rights. If you are a copyright owner and you believe the display of your content on this website constitutes copyright infringement, please contact Barnes’s Designated Agent as required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, Title 17 U.S.C. § 512 (“DMCA”): DMCA Agent, Office of the General Counsel, The Barnes Foundation, 2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19103 or dmca@barnesfoundation.org.