From Caravaggio to Gilbert Stuart, from Fra Angelico to American Impressionists, it’s all free.New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is now offering five decades worth of art history books and exhibition catalogs online, free to read, search or download.
This a unique opportunity to own books that would have cost a pretty penny when sold in bookstores. While a digital copy of an art book doesn’t do much to impress guests assembled around one’s book-laden coffee table, these books have a few advantages over the print versions. They’re searchable, you can use your computer to zoom in for a closer look, and since they are offered under “fair use” restrictions, you can do what you wish with them. Needless to say, they take up no space at all. Marie Kondo, eat your heart out!
Here are a few of the treasures now available for free. Just click on the icon that says “download pdf” and the book is yours:
