About Us
Founded in 1972, the Bridgeman Art Library works with museums,
art galleries and artists to make the best art available for
reproduction. The result is an outstanding archive of images
drawn from collections throughout the world, all of which are
available for licensing.
Every subject, concept, style and medium is represented, from
the masterpieces of national museums to the hidden treasures of
private collections. Fine art is just one of the sources of
images; design antiques, maps, architecture, furniture, glass,
ceramics, anthropological artefacts and many others also feature
in the collection.
We aim to make these images accessible for every user; each one
has been catalogued with full picture data and key-worded to
make searching easy, even for those with little art knowledge.
Our website allows you to explore the collection in depth with
quick and advanced search facilities. We also provide a full
research service whereby our expert researchers can select
images to your requirements.
History
1972
A great idea for an agency
Harriet Bridgeman conceived the idea for a central source of
fine art images in the early 1970s, whilst working in publishing
as an editor of illustrated art books. At that time, anyone
wishing to reproduce a fine art image was faced with the
daunting task of locating first the work and then the owner of
the work in order to gain permission and a photograph. The
process could be slow, difficult and expensive, particularly if
multiple images from different sources were required and no
photographs existed.
It was clear that many museums were neither financed nor
equipped to service these kinds of requests. The quality of
caption information and transparencies, when they were
available, also varied considerably. Harriet Bridgeman began to
see the obvious need for a specialised agency for reproduction
licensing, staffed by experts in art history, picture research
and rights. The Bridgeman Art Library was formed in 1972 to
protect the copyright of art owners and provide an essential
link between them and image users.
The 70s and 80s
Word spreads
In the beginning, the company collaborated with A.C. Cooper, the
prestigious fine art photographers, to create transparencies of
works of art. The company was run by Harriet Bridgeman from the
basement of her home in London's Notting Hill and supplied
reproduction rights to a client base of mainly publishing
houses. Word spread quickly amongst the museum community and
image users of all types. Museums began to see the huge
potential of entering into agency agreements with the Library
and over the next few years the archive grew from a single box
of transparencies to a comprehensive collection of thousands of
images. The client base also grew from a handful of core
London-based publishing houses to creative professionals
throughout the world and in every area of publishing and design.
1992
Going digital
The Bridgeman Art Library grew rapidly in terms of the
collection and the speed and efficiency of its service. This
remarkable development was made possible by the adoption of new
technology and a progressive, client-focused attitude. As early
as 1992, work had begun on creating a digital database of every
image in the collection. These low resolution files were used to
create CD-ROM catalogues such as 'Highlights' (1996) and
'Complete' (1998) and copies are still offered free of charge to
partner collections for archival or didactic purposes.
Bridgeman specialists have also recently teamed up with
scientists to develop ways of making images more accessible; the
1996 Image-In project conducted valuable research into new
methods of image delivery and the more recent MOUMIR project is
currently developing a unified framework for the retrieval of
information from unorganised multimedia databases.
1999
Bridgeman moves online
The drive towards a comprehensive online catalogue began in
1996, when Bridgeman became one of the first picture archives to
create a basic site providing company information. After many
years of research and construction, Bridgeman's first fully
searchable website was launched in April 1999.
Designed as an essential creative tool for image users, the
Bridgeman site is now regarded as one of the web's most
significant cultural resources and provides content for the
Grove Macmillan Dictionary of Art Online and ArtWeb, an online
gateway to museum collections built in collaboration with
Réunion des Musées Nationaux.
Seeing the huge potential of the internet to reach new image
users, the Bridgeman Art Library signed an agreement in 1999
with leading stock image provider Getty Images, Inc. to supply
thousands of Bridgeman images for display and purchase on Getty
Images' vertical portal site, gettyimages.com.
2000
London, New York, Paris
The company moved to larger premises in Bayswater in 1995. Two
years later, Bridgeman opened a New York office in order to
better serve the North, Central and South American market. In
the same year, the Bridgeman Art Library Copyright Service was
introduced to provide a complete licensing service for artists
and artist's estates, simplifying the clearance process even
further. In 1999 Bridgeman merged with the Visual Arts Library
and by the end of 2000 had offices fully established in London,
New York and Paris.
The collection continues to grow in size and depth. Over 500 new
images are added to the archive each week and museums
represented include such renowned names as the British Museum
and the British Library, the National Galleries of Scotland,
Sweden and South Africa, the Hamburg Kunsthalle, and the Barnes
Foundation in Pennsylvania. In 2001, the Bridgeman Art Library
announced the milestone acquisition of Giraudon, the historic
and prestigious French picture archive, leading to the renaming
of the Paris office Bridgeman Giraudon.
2004
Bridgeman today
Today, the Bridgeman Art Library is a much-loved institution and
Lady Bridgeman continues to play a central role in the growth of
the company. Described by the London Times as the 'grand doyenne
of picture libraries', she is in great demand as a guest speaker
on intellectual property and museum funding, and lobbies for
improvements to copyright legislation through her role on the
committee of the British Copyright Council. It is this
progressive attitude, and the focus on improvement and growth,
that has pushed the company to the forefront of its industry.
The Bridgeman Art Library will continue to make the world of art
ever more accessible for many years to come.
Key Features
Bridgeman Education offers a unique and flexible way to search
over 8000 locations covering the world’s major museums, art
collections and historical sites with access to 200,000 images
on a single website. This website benefits the institution in
two key ways. Firstly the licence permits any educational use
for enrolled staff and students in an institution and secondly
the search and retrieval functions offer more advantages and
flexibility for tutors and students – the emphasis being on
simplicity, rapid scholarly access and easy organisation.
Searching
Bridgeman Education offers Quick and Advanced search
features in a similar way to our current site yet searches are
tailored to educational needs.
For instance we are including special indices in addition to the
Bridgeman standard index on our current site and we will offer
the added benefit of compliance to VRA core 3.0.
The following search facilities are available:
- wild card/truncated searches by prefix and suffix
- boolean search
-"bound" and (bracketed) phrasing
- negative searches
- the ability to hyperlink through keywords
- search within a search will be possible ensuring rapid
research
Display
Viewing of images on Bridgeman Education allows multiple
images to be displayed across the page rapidly at thumbnail size
with brief captions. Searches can be sorted by number of images
per page with various display options. Searches can also be
sorted by artist, date & location.
There is also the added feature of a text only display with
simple print options for those scholars who wish to keep long
lists offline or online. Examples might be a list of works by
one artist, a list of images from one location or one theme or
subject. Large images with full captions will be available at
the click of a button.
Other new features are:
- Move pictures around on the slideshow – creating desired order
of display
- Edit and add notes to the existing caption to talk from during
seminars
- Write your own summary - summary/notes area included beside
each slide show
- Ability to see two, three or four images side by side for
comparison
- Zoom function incorporated
Saving & Retrieval
Bridgeman Education offers total flexibility so that displayed
images will comprise a working lightbox which can then be saved
to a named slide show. Slideshows importantly offer
non-proprietary software meaning that images can be saved to
incorporate as Jpegs into any software such as powerpoint. Your
licence covers you for saving images to a VLE. As many
slideshows as desired can be saved and easily retrieved from the
site by inserting a username and password.
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