This is a list of 7 free websites to download free royalty free paintings. They offer tons of stunning paintings which you can download for free and use them for commercial as well as non-commercial purposes. All of the paintings on these websites follow the CC0 license or are in the restriction-free public domain. That means after downloading the paintings, you don’t need to give any credit or attribution to the artist/website for using them. The quality of the paintings which you get from these websites are pretty impressive.
You can simply browse these websites, search for paintings, and view or download them with ease. They allow you to download the images as JPEG or PNG files to your PC. Some of them offer a few hundred paintings, whereas, some exhibits a whopping number/thousands of royalty-free paintings.
We have also covered free websites to download royalty free images, sound effects, GIFs, videos, and vector icons.
Now, let us take a look at the websites for downloading royalty free paintings.
NGA Images:
NGA Images is one of the best website to download free royalty free paintings. This website exhibits a vast collection of stunning paintings from National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., United States of America. To be exact, there are more than 900 paintings categorized into Self-Portrait, Music, America, Intimate Impressions, Nature & Ecology, and more. All these paintings are available in public domain (Open Access) and can be used for both personal and commercial use. No attribution required to the website.
You can easily download these paintings by opening the homepage and then browsing the “Collections” tab. There you will see the categories which you can explore and see all the associated paintings. Then you can see details about the paintings, preview them, and download to your PC as JPEG files. The quality of the paintings is very good with decent resolutions.
Read more about the usage terms & conditions from here.
Met Museum:
Met Museum is another free website that offers tons of free royalty free paintings for you to download. The paintings are the collection of Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA. You will find thousands of paintings from legends like Velázquez, John La Farge, and more. The paintings come with CC0 License, which means you can download and use them for both commercial and personal use. It doesn’t require you to give any credit to the website or artist. The license information will be visible at the bottom of each painting when you browse it.
To find the paintings, simply visit the homepage and then select “Art →Collections” menu at the top. Then simply type “paintings” in the search bar and then it will show thousands of results. It also allows you to filter the paintings by the artist, material, geographic location, era, and more to quickly find the ones you require. You can then open the paintings to preview, read details, share, print, and download. The paintings can be downloaded as JPG files to your PC for free.
You can know more about the license from here.
Wikimedia Commons:
Wikimedia Commons can also be used to download royalty free paintings for free. It offers tons of paintings in different genres like Animal, Battles, History, Landscapes, Marine, Mythology, and more. Almost all the paintings are in public domain and don’t violate any copyright restrictions. That means you can download and use them non-commercially as well as commercially. But, in some paintings, there might be non-copyright restrictions liable, so carefully read about the reuse instructions of the paintings before you download them. The instructions can be read for each painting on the preview screen.
You can explore the painting by opening Wikimedia Commons and then typing “paintings” in the search bar. This will open up the “Paintings” archive where you can browse through all the paintings. You can view them online, read the description, and finally download them as JPG files in different resolutions.
1 Million Free Pictures:
1 Million Free Pictures is another website which lets you download royalty free paintings for free. You will find hundreds of beautiful paintings which are the original work of the website author. The author has made the paintings available in public domain and allowed free usage for personal and commercial purposes without attribution. It offers paintings for flowers, train tracks, Ferris wheel, boat, door, and much more. Apart from paintings, it also offers other royalty-free images in categories like art, buildings, etc.
It lets you browse paintings in the “Gallery” section. You can simply search for paintings and then choose any set of paintings to view and download them. You can download the paintings as JPG files and then use them wherever you want without worrying about the copyright restrictions.
You can read the usage terms here.
OpenClipart:
OpenClipart is also one of the best websites that allow you to easily download royalty free paintings without paying a penny. It exhibits hundreds of amazing paintings from vintage landscapes to holy mother Mary, Greek orthodox to Chinese portraits, and so on. All of the paintings are of very good quality and you can print them without distorting the pixels. This website enlists the paintings with CC0 license. That means you can modify, edit, and use the paintings for commercial and private purposes without giving credit to the author.
You can simply open the homepage and then search for “paintings” in the search bar. Then it will display all the painting results which you can preview and download for free. You can download the paintings in different file formats including PNG, PDF, SVG, and WMF (for Microsoft Office and Libre Office). It also provides an embed code for the paintings such that you can easily add them to your website/blog.
Karen’s Whimsey Public Domain Images:
Karen’s Whimsey Public Domain Images also exhibits a vast collection of paintings which are royalty-free and can also be downloaded without paying anything. Almost all the images listed on this site are paintings in various categories like animal life, water world, ancient past, music, fairy lands, the middle ages, North American history, and much more. The paintings are in public domain and you are free to use them either privately or commercially. Using the paintings doesn’t even require giving attribution to the website.
It lets you easily browse the paintings by going to the homepage. You will find the paintings under the “Public Domain Images” section which you can view online as well as download them to your PC for free. However, some of the paintings with higher resolution might require you to purchase them. You can download the paintings as JPEG files.
Read the terms & conditions here.
Pexels:
Pexels is also a useful website which offers dozens of royalty-free paintings for you to download. You can download and use the paintings free of charge. All the paintings follow CC0 License, which also means you can download, edit, and use them for non-commercial and commercial projects. You don’t need to give any credit to the website or the author for using the paintings. The license details will be visible for each painting when you open it.
You can simply go to the website and then search for paintings using the “Search” bar. Once you do that, it will display all the paintings in the search result which you can preview with just a click. While previewing the paintings, you will be able to download them as JPEG files with custom resolution. You will also see the option to share the paintings with others.
Closing Words:
So, these are some of the best websites to download free royalty free paintings for commercial and personal use. Personally, I like all of these websites as all of them offer stunning paintings for free. But, if you’re looking for a vast collection of paintings, then you should go with “Met Museum”.
Try them out and let me know about your endeavors with the paintings in the comments.
