Art Institute of Chicago Scraper

Scrape the Art Institute of Chicago's open collection of over 110,000 artworks via their free public API. The Art Institute of Chicago holds one of the finest collections in the world, spanning 5,000 years of art history across 13 departments including European Paintings, Modern Art, Asian Art, Photography, Prints and Drawings, and more.

What you get

Every record includes:

Field	Description
artworkId	Unique Art Institute artwork identifier
title	Artwork title
artistTitle	Artist's display name
artistDisplay	Full artist attribution with nationality and dates
departmentTitle	Museum department name
departmentId	Department identifier (e.g. PC-10)
dateDisplay	Human-readable creation date
dateStart / dateEnd	Numeric year range for filtering
medium	Materials used (e.g., "Oil on canvas")
dimensions	Physical dimensions with units
placeOfOrigin	Country or region of origin
artworkTypeTitle	Type of artwork (Painting, Drawing, Print, etc.)
styleTitle	Primary art style or movement
styleTitles	All associated art styles/movements
classificationTitle	Primary classification
classificationTitles	All classifications
subjectTitles	Subject matter tags
techniqueTitles	Techniques used
materialTitles	Materials used
categoryTitles	Thematic categories
creditLine	Acquisition credit
accessionNumber	Museum accession/reference number
galleryTitle	Gallery currently displayed in
isPublicDomain	Whether artwork is in the public domain
isOnView	Whether currently on display
isFeatured	Whether the museum highlights this artwork
description	Artwork description
imageId	IIIF image identifier for image access
imageUrl	IIIF image URL (843px wide)
imageAltText	Accessible description of the image
colorfulness	Colorfulness score of the artwork image
artworkUrl	Link to the Art Institute collection page
scrapedAt	ISO 8601 timestamp of extraction

Input options

Mode: Search artworks

Search across the full collection using Elasticsearch-powered full-text search.

{
  "mode": "search",
  "query": "impressionism",
  "hasImage": false,
  "maxItems": 50
}

Mode: Browse by department

Get artworks from a specific museum department.

{
  "mode": "byDepartment",
  "department": "PC-10",
  "isPublicDomain": true,
  "maxItems": 100
}

Available departments:

• PC-1 — Arts of Africa
• PC-3 — Arts of the Americas
• PC-4 — Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
• PC-5 — Architecture and Design
• PC-7 — Arts of Asia
• PC-8 — Contemporary Art
• PC-9 — Applied Arts of Europe
• PC-10 — Painting and Sculpture of Europe
• PC-11 — Modern Art
• PC-12 — Photography and Media
• PC-13 — Prints and Drawings
• PC-14 — Textiles
• PC-838 — Modern and Contemporary Art

Mode: Browse by artwork type

Browse artworks by their type or medium.

{
  "mode": "byArtworkType",
  "artworkType": "1",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Available artwork types:

• 1 — Painting
• 14 — Drawing and Watercolor
• 18 — Print
• 23 — Vessel
• 11 — Book
• 35 — Metalwork
• 36 — Ceramics
• 37 — Glass
• 42 — Furnishings
• 12 — Costume and Accessories
• 31 — Design
• 33 — Film, Video, New Media
• 16 — Installation

Mode: Search by artist

Find artworks associated with a specific artist.

{
  "mode": "byArtist",
  "query": "Monet",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Filters

Parameter	Type	Description
styleTitle	string	Filter by art style or movement (e.g. "Impressionism", "Baroque")
placeOfOrigin	string	Filter by country or region (e.g. "France", "Japan")
dateStartMin	integer	Earliest creation year (can be negative for BCE)
dateStartMax	integer	Latest creation year
isPublicDomain	boolean	Only return public domain artworks
isOnView	boolean	Only return artworks currently on display
hasImage	boolean	Only return artworks with an associated image
maxItems	integer	Maximum records to return (1–5000, default: 50)

Example use cases

• Art research: Find all Impressionist paintings from France in European collections
• Museum data: Browse Photography department for digital media projects
• Artist portfolio: Find all artworks by a specific artist in the collection
• Education: Collect public domain artwork data for academic study or publication
• Style analysis: Analyze distribution of art styles across departments and time periods
• Collection mapping: Build a catalog of artworks by period, material, or technique

Sample output record

{
  "artworkId": 27992,
  "title": "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884",
  "artistTitle": "Georges Seurat",
  "artistDisplay": "Georges Seurat (French, 1859–1891)",
  "departmentTitle": "Painting and Sculpture of Europe",
  "departmentId": "PC-10",
  "dateDisplay": "1884–86, border added 1888–89",
  "dateStart": 1884,
  "dateEnd": 1886,
  "medium": "Oil on canvas",
  "dimensions": "207.5 × 308.1 cm (81 11/16 × 121 1/4 in.)",
  "placeOfOrigin": "France",
  "artworkTypeTitle": "Painting",
  "styleTitle": "Post-Impressionism",
  "styleTitles": ["Post-Impressionism", "Pointillism"],
  "classificationTitle": "Painting",
  "subjectTitles": ["leisure", "families", "rivers", "parks"],
  "creditLine": "Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection",
  "accessionNumber": "1926.224",
  "galleryTitle": "Gallery 240",
  "isPublicDomain": true,
  "isOnView": true,
  "isFeatured": true,
  "description": "Seurat's iconic pointillist masterpiece.",
  "imageId": "2d484387-2509-5e8e-2c43-22f9981972eb",
  "imageUrl": "https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/2d484387-2509-5e8e-2c43-22f9981972eb/full/843,/0/default.jpg",
  "colorfulness": 18.45,
  "artworkUrl": "https://www.artic.edu/artworks/27992",
  "recordType": "artwork",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-25T10:00:00+00:00"
}

Data source

All data is sourced from the Art Institute of Chicago's free public API (api.artic.edu). The API provides open access to the museum's digitized collection with no API key or authentication required. It is built on Elasticsearch, enabling rich full-text search across all fields.

Public domain artworks (marked isPublicDomain: true) can be used freely for any purpose. The imageUrl field provides access to IIIF-compatible image URLs at 843px width — suitable for display and research use.

FAQ

Q: Do I need an API key or account? A: No. The Art Institute of Chicago API is completely free and open — no registration is required.

Q: How large is the collection? A: The digitized collection contains over 110,000 artworks available via the API, with more than 52,000 public domain works that include freely usable images.

Q: Can I use the images? A: Artworks with isPublicDomain: true are freely usable for any purpose. Use the imageUrl field which provides a 843px-wide IIIF image. For larger sizes, the imageId can be used with the IIIF base URL at https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2.

Q: What date range does the collection cover? A: From ancient times (over 5000 years ago) to contemporary works. Use dateStartMin/dateStartMax with negative values for BCE dates.

Q: How does search work? A: Search uses the museum's Elasticsearch-powered API for full-text search across titles, artist names, descriptions, subjects, styles, and more.

Q: What is colorfulness? A: A numeric score measuring the visual colorfulness of the artwork's image. Higher values indicate more colorful works. Only present when the image has been analyzed.