Decorative Arts

American Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/department.asp?dep=1
Images of items from the MET's huge collection, and accompanying descriptive text describes each item.

Bauhaus Archive Museum of Design
http://www.bauhaus.de/
All aspects of Bauhaus design, as well as other decorative styles including Wiener Werkstatte. This museum is located in Berlin.

British Arts and Crafts
http://www.artsmia.org/modernism/m1intro.html
Well constructed Minneapolis Institute of the Arts site created discussing William Morris and other notables of this movement, with examples of their work.

Burgerhuis
http://www.museums.org.za/burgerhuisstel/
South African colonial home and it's contents displayed online. Interesting 18th century porcelain and furnishings.

Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art
http://www.morsemuseum.org/
"The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art houses the most comprehensive collection of the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany found anywhere, a major collection of American art pottery" View examples of Tiffany's works as well as Rookwood and Newcomb Pottery.

Chipstone Collection
http://www.chipstone.org/
There are some problems with this site, but it does eventually promise online access to an impressive exhibit of one of the finest collections of American Decorative Arts.

European Decorative Arts from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/department.asp?dep=12
View fifty of the highlights of this outstanding collection. Accompanying text describes the item.

Furniture and Furnishings
http://www.smithsonianlegacies.si.edu/category.cfm
A selection of items from the Smithsonian Museum.

Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles - Decorative Arts
http://www.getty.edu/art/collections/collection_types/c30.html
Hundreds of photographs of items, each labeled, and many with extensive descriptive text. Items date from ancient times to the present. Click on the humbnail for an enlarged version with accompanying description.

European Textiles
http://www.thais.it/arti_minori/tessuto/default.htm
Extensive site featuring Byzantine textiles from the IVth century, and Muslim, Italian and French textiles from the middle ages to the present.

La Belle Époque
http://members.fortunecity.de/jostein/
This is a truly beautiful site. Well organized, it presents historical data as well as long essays with many visuals on Art Nouveau, Advertising of the Belle Époque, the art of Antonio de la Ganidara and music of Mahler and examples of architecture and art in those cities where exceptional examples exist, including: Bratislava, Bruxelles, Darmstadt, Dresden, Lille, Munich, Nancy, Antwerp, Offenbach, Barcelona, Glasgow, Paris and Wien.

Modernism and the Decorative Arts
http://www.artsmia.org/modernism/
Large directory style site with textual and visual information on the Arts and Crafts movement, Art Nouveau, Wiener Werkstatte, Bauhaus and Art Deco.

Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts
http://www.mbam.qc.ca/fr/index_flash.html
Includes recent exhibits, such as Carlo Scarpo, and Italian Design.

National Gallery - Decorative Arts
http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/decarts.htm
The complete online collection of decorative arts at the National Gallery.

Nineteenth Century Venetian Ceramics
http://www.thais.it/arti_minori/ceramica/default_uk.htm
19th century potteries from the Bassano area are featured here. Items are searchable by the images painted on them by categories of subject.

Powerhouse Museum (Sydney) - Decorative Arts
http://www.phm.gov.au/collection/decorative_arts/
"The decorative arts and design collection includes Australian and international ceramics, glass, metalwork, dress, textiles, lace, jewllery, woodwork, furniture, lighting, lacquer, environmental and graphic design, photographs, musical instruments, coins, medals, archival material and ephemera. The collection is extremely diverse and chronologically broad." Links to select items are included.

Smithsonian Museum - Craft and Decorative Arts
http://www.si.edu/art_and_design/crafts_folk_and_decorative_arts/
This is a mammoth site featuring every possible form of decorative art. As the Smithsonian houses a collection that is international, all cultures are represented.

Victoria and Albert Museum
http://www.vam.ac.uk/
This museum houses one of the most extensive collections of the decorative arts in the world. Click site map to determine an area of decorative arts, such as Asian and Islamic art or textiles and dress, or use the search box.

White House Collection of American Arts and Crafts
http://nmaa-ryder.si.edu/collections/exhibits/whc/
Examples of arts in crafts in various media including fiber and glass. Online tours with such guides as Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton.

The William Morris Society
http://www.morrissociety.org/
"This site is devoted to William Morris (1834-96), the British craftsman, designer, writer, typographer, and Socialist. It aims to present news of Morris-related events and publications; information about the worldwide William Morris Society; materials relating to the life and work of Morris, his friends and followers; and links to other places of interest on the Internet."

Design

Decorative Arts and Design of the 20th Century
http://www.tribu-design.com/en/index.html
This site has a wonderful database of 20th century objects, including furniture. Hundreds of examples of works by Macintosh, Gaudi, Desny, Aalto, Lacroix, Sarafatti, Bellini, Pesce, Sottsass and more are given.

De Stijl
http://char.txa.cornell.edu/art/decart/destijl/decstijl.htm
De Stijl, means style in Dutch, and was a movement formed in the 1920's. Influenced by some of the ideas of DaDa, the design was a physical manifestation of a utopian philosophical approach to aesthetics articulated in the publication, de Stijl. This site provides a brief description of de Stijl and examples of designs.

History of Industrial Design
http://www.qdesign.co.nz/designhist.html
Very informative site covering the Arts & Crafts Movement, Art Nouveau, de Stijl, Bauhaus, Art Deco, 60's Pop and Post-modernism.

Index of American Design at the National Gallery
http://www.nga.gov/collection/iad/tour_index/index.htm
Selected tours in many categories of items held at the National Gallery in Washington, DC.

Drawing

Leonardo da Vinci : Master Draftsman
http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId=%7B6B091EEE-4BB0-11D6-9419-00902786BF44%7D
Online version of a special exhibit of the artist's drawings and sketches held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Drawing Resources
http://www.kckpl.lib.ks.us/FINEARTS/ARTLINKS/Draw.html
Kansas City Public Library's page of links to websites offering mostly information drawing techniques. These sites include the Benoit Pen and Ink site and the Colored Pencil of America site. There are links, though, to Edward Gorey sites.

Escher Art Collection
http://www.cs.unc.edu/~davemc/Pic/Escher/
Selected examples of the artist's drawings. There are many examples given here as well as links to the work of contemporary artists who have been influenced by Escher.

Escher
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Escher.html
Biographical page on the artist featuring links to his works. Written from the mathematical perspective. Maintained by the Dept. of Mathematics at the University of St. Andrews.

Escher
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.pattern/lesson7art.html
Online class page featuring discussion on tessellation. Interesting text.

Open Directory - Line Art and Ink Illustrations
http://dmoz.org/Arts/Illustration/Line-Art_and_Ink_Illustrations/
Links to the WebPages of numerous contemporary line art illustrators.

Morgan Pierpont Library
http://www.themorgan.org/collections/default.asp
Search the permanent collection of this incredible institution for examples of drawings. Artists include Rembrandt, Blake and Durer.

Photography

Berenice Abbott: Changing New York - 1935-1938
http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/art/photo/abbottex/abbott.html
A noted photographer whose career spanned five decades, this online exhibit provided by the New York Public Library provides a photo documentary of New York in the thirties.

Ansel Adams
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/ansel/
Exhibit from the California Museum of Photography.

American Museum of Photography
http://www.photographymuseum.com/
Online exhibits.

Art History Resources on the Web - Photography
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHprints.html
This is the Photography Links page from Professor Witcombe's outstanding site, from Sweet Briar College. An excellent source for critical and factual information on the web.

Library of Congresses - Prints and Photographs: An Illustrated Guide
http://www.loc.gov/coll/print/guide/
An excellent site. Click on An American Gallery to view daguerreotypes by Matthew Brady or gelatin silver prints by Ansel Adams. The section on Pictoral Journalism contains photographs by Walker Evans and Toni Frissell.

Gertrude Bell
http://www.gerty.ncl.ac.uk/
Photographs and biographical information on this pioneering female photographer and world traveller.

Mathew Brady's Photographs
http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/brady/index2.htm
Photographs by this master, discussion of technique, biographical information on Brady and on his sitters and more from the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Cameras: The Technology of Photographic Imaging
http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/cameras/index.htm
History of photography from Museum of the History of Science, Oxford.

George Eastman House - Museum
http://www.eastman.org/
Online exhibits and information on the life and work of most major photographers.

J. Paul Getty Museum - Photography
http://www.getty.edu/art/collections/collection_types/c260.html
Excellent description of the development process and types of photographs.

Eadweard Muybridge
http://americanhistory.si.edu/muybridge/
This pioneer photographer was the inspiration for the motion picture.

Stieglitz
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/stieglitz_a.html
" Companion to a documentary (part of the PBS American Masters series) about photographer and art impresario Alfred Stieglitz whose work influenced American art and culture in the early twentieth century. Includes an essay about Stieglitz, a timeline of his career, filmmaker interview, and video clips of footage not included in the original documentary. With links to sites featuring work by Stieglitz and his artist associates. "