Sources and rights

Actual Size includes 53,119 works from the National Gallery of Art (48,267), Wikimedia Commons (2,238), the Cleveland Museum of Art (1,114), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (824) and the Art Institute of Chicago (676). Each has its source’s public-domain or open-access designation and machine-readable dimensions.

The licence

The Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art release images and records under Creative Commons Zero (CC0). The National Gallery of Art waives data rights only; only flagged open-access images appear here. All 2,238 Wikimedia Commons files here are marked public domain (2,214) or CC0 ({commonsCC0}). You can copy, change and share every work, commercially or otherwise, without permission or fees.

What has been changed

All 53,119 works use their own measurements, excluding frames. Artist spellings were reconciled only for 2,600 gallery works curated from the three museums; the other 50,519 retain their holders’ spellings. Rembrandt’s three spellings became one there. Different family generations, “Workshop of”, “After” and anonymous names like “French Painter” remain separate everywhere. Actual Size turns or reshapes 972 works to match the photograph where it disagrees with recorded dimensions. Each affected page flags the change and gives the museum’s figures. Actual Size takes responsibility for errors these changes introduce.

Independence

Actual Size is independent, with no museum affiliation, sponsorship or endorsement. No museum trademark is used under licence. Each work links back to its museum record.

Five collections

Credit

Each work page shows its title, artist and date, with the holding collection in the breadcrumb. It includes the museum’s credit line where available and a ‘Record at’ link to the holding collection.

Attribution is not required by any of these licences. It is given because the collections made this possible and a reader should be able to follow a work home.