47,460 Reference Images

Hello! I’m Missy Briggs. And I’m your fairy godmother of sketch inspiration…

There is a great tradition of copying amongst the greats of the art world. Paul Cezanne once said, “The Louvre is the book from which we learn to read.” And artists did flock to the Louvre to paint and copy the masters. From the time of the French Revolution until the Musee du Louvre realized that humanity sucks, you could go into the museum with your paint and easel and have at it.

My quick online search doesn’t yield a specific reason why this practice was discontinued, but it’s likely to do with large crowds, and/or someone defacing a great work by adding their own special touch.

Reportedly the Louvre still permits copyists to work in the galleries, but you must present an application and the wait list is years-long.

You can draw in most museums without a permit. Always ask first. And always assume it’s going to be permissible with pencil and paper only. No easels. But as life is short and the list of artwork to copy is rather long, let’s get to a solution that allows you to get up close and personal with a masterpiece without setting off an alarm.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has images of 492,000 pieces in the collection. Of those, some 17,000+ are available as open-access, and publicly available to share.

Logically, as someone that needs an elegant solution to a non-issue, I’ve created an app that will randomly serve up a reference image for you to sketch. What do you think?

The beauty of this approach is that you never know what you'll see next - it could be a Ming Dynasty vase, a medieval sword, a Renaissance painting, or a piece of contemporary jewelry. That's what makes it perfect for artistic inspiration and reference!

Boom! You’re a copyist.

My next issue… what to do with this app. I’m going to have to create a community feature that allows us to share our drawings!