Monday 8 April 2013

Sources for Courses: BBC Your Paintings


An enormous new online collection of around 212,000 oil paintings is now available. This initiative is a joint project between the BBC, the Public Catalogue Foundation, and participating collections and museums from across the UK.

The collection consists mainly of paintings in the public sphere, including a few pieces of art not normally viewable by the general public.

The project aims to make searchable this collection of oil paintings by enlisting the help of the public in tagging the paintings with details of their content.This helps make the database useful as an academic resource by allowing students to look for specific features in the art they are studying.


The website also includes 'virtual tours' that consist of podcasts exploring the favourite paintings of well known figures and art historians.



The paintings are not only useful for art students, but also for students across a variety of disciplines. They offer insight into the culture of the UK over the past 600 years and represent an important pre-photographic record.

The vastness of the collection is also not to be underestimated, paintings have been included from collections spanning from the southern isle of Jersey to the northern reaches of the Shetland Islands.

Your Paintings is accessible through the Databases A-Z feature in Primo.

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