Bridgeman Images, based in New York, London, Paris and Berlin, provides one of the largest archives for reproductions of works of art in the world. Bridgeman Art Library was founded in 1972 by
Harriet Bridgeman and changed its name in 2014. The Bridgeman Art Library works with
art galleries
An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The long ...
and
museum
A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...
s to gather
image
An image or picture is a visual representation. An image can be Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional, such as a drawing, painting, or photograph, or Three-dimensional space, three-dimensional, such as a carving or sculpture. Images may be di ...
s
and footage for licensing.
History
Harriet Bridgeman was hired at 23 by Sir
John Rothenstein to launch a UK version of the Italian journal ''I Maestri del Colore''. She discovered that gathering pictures of artworks was complicated and launched Bridgeman Art Library in 1972.
In 1998, the company was involved in the case ''
Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp.'', in which the
ruled that exact photographic copies of two-dimensional works in the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...
cannot be copyrighted, even if making the image takes considerable
effort, because the resulting works lack
originality
Originality is the aspect of created or invented works that distinguish them from reproductions, clones, forgeries, or substantially derivative works. The modern idea of originality is according to some scholars tied to Romanticism, by a notion ...
. During the
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...
's 1998 exhibition ''Art Treasures of England: the Regional Collections'', 98% of the pieces exhibited came from Bridgeman Art Library.
In 2007, Harriet Bridgeman restructured the company to pave the way for her succession. In 2012, Bridgeman Art Library started to represent the
British Council
The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...
Collection. In 2014, the company officially changed its name from Bridgeman Art Library to Bridgeman Images. In April 2015, Bridgeman Images acquired the French photo archives company Rue des Archives.
Activities
Bridgeman Images is a company that represents museums, art collections and artists throughout the world by providing a central source of fine art and photography for image users (300,000 artworks and 750,000 historical photographs). The company provides a search engine to query its inventory.
Bridgeman also provides customers with reproduction licensing and offers advice on how to clear artist's copyright, if additional permission is needed.
Copyright holders receive remuneration in the form of half the reproduction fee paid by the customer. As well as supplying images to consumers, Bridgeman works with copyright holders to create high quality reproductions of artists' works using the latest imaging technology. These reproductions can be ordered through various websites and apps such as
Art Authority. Over 500 new images are added to the Bridgeman archive each week. Museums represented in the archive include the
British Museum
The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
; the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...
; the National Galleries of
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
,
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
and
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
; the
Hamburg Kunsthalle; and the
Barnes Foundation.
See also
*
List of online image archives
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Publishing companies established in 1972
Museum companies
Companies based in the City of Westminster
Visual arts publishing companies
Photo archives in the United Kingdom
Stock photography
Digital libraries
Visual arts libraries
Libraries established in 1972