I’ve found the perfect public domain painting for my next book cover: Ophelia (“And He Will Not Come Back Again”) by Arthur Hughes. Apparently the real painting is on the Toledo Musem of Art (Ohio, not Spain, I reckon). I’ve been wanting to acquire the painting in digital format and in size large enough for a book cover. That will mean at least 23x17 centimetres. I can’t find it online, though I’ve found several smaller free images, like this one: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ophelia_("And_He_Will_Not_Come_Back_Again")).jpg Or the Museum’s itself: https://www.toledomuseum.org/about/news/art-minute-arthur-hughes-ophelia-%E2%80%9Cand-he-will-not-come-back-again%E2%80%9D Beautiful, isn’t it? These sizes are good for an ebook cover, but way too small for a book cover. There are prints available to buy online, but I really don’t want the physical print. I’m willing to buy the digital format. Buying a print only adds noise to the image (the packaging may ruin it, I’d have to scan it myself and I don’t own a professional scanner, etc). I haven’t tried contacting the online stores yet about the possibility of buying a digital copy, but it’s not on sale anywhere. Do you think they’d make an exception? Anyone has any experience doing this? (Anyone here knows anyone in the Toledo Museum who can take a picture? Kidding. I’m wondering, isn’t there an easier way? Isn’t there a sort of Gutenberg project for public domain art the same way there is for books? I use public domain on my covers. Sometimes I’m lucky and come across a free and available big file, sometimes (like this one) I don’t. I’ll be having this problem a lot, since I make my books’ cover art myself. Where do professionals go when they want to use the Mona Lisa on a cover, for instance? Surely they don’t have to buy it from the Louvre, do they? (Do they?...) Any guidance appreciated. I’m thinking of trying Fine Art America. Any experience with them you might share? And while I’m asking, since they ship worldwide, can I pay with a credit card since my bank account is in euros? It would be my first purchase outside the EU, I really don’t know how this works.
I'm a member of Flickr, keep all my stuff there. A search turned this up... Seems like the pic taker 'Bob' has a good reproducible copy of it. 1600 px at worst will leave you at approx 200 ppi, this should reproduce reasonably for a book cover. Can use interpolation in photoshop to get it up to std 300 ppi for 4 col print process (use unsharp mask too (an old trick) to render some apparent clarity). As for copyright... there my expertise does not lie
For an instant I thought you had solved my problem. I could work with the largest version. But no luck. “The owner has disabled downloading of their photos”. Thank you all the same.
The Wikimedia site offers downloads in various resolutions, ranging from 16px to 256px (pixels-per-inch?), and then "Full resolution." Have you downloaded the full resolution image and found that it's not good enough? [Edit to add] Never mind. I downloaded it and opened it in Paint. The "full resolution" image is 370 x 600 pixels. How about e-mailing the museum and asking if someone could snap a photo of it and send it to you?
Seconding this, also you could try messaging 'Bob' on Flickr and asking if he'll let you use his. I find people are often very accommodating if you ask nicely (and offer credit where credit is due).
For the record, https://commons.wikimedia.org does have large files, good enough for cover art. They do have a huge Mona Lisa: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mona_Lisa_Digitally_Restored.tif So this a source to keep in mind.
Yes, always. I was joking when I spoke about a picture. It takes a very good professional picture to get cover art quality and of course the photographer should be credited as well. Now, I’m not that familiar with art conservation but I think art is scanned differently. We cannot simply let these master pieces be damaged by time and hazards of all kind. I’m all for digital format. Using classic art in book covers is good, in my opinion, because it reaches a wider and younger audience that may not know the art exists.
Hey there! I haven’t come here very much lately because my routines have changed and I haven’t found a time to schedule the forum yet. So, news. I did ask the museum, and they were very helpful and quick to respond. The book is written in Portuguese but I want to add this bit in English in the Thank You page. (By the way, what do you call the Thank You page?) Can you please read and tell me if you think it’s ok? I’ve never thanked a Museum before, let alone in English. The author sincerely thanks the Toledo Museum of Art, in Ohio, United States, for providing the cover image of the original art by Arthur Hughes, “Ophelia (And He Will Not Come Back Again)”. Much gratitude. I’m sending them a copy. They really made my life easier. If you can, I advise you to visit and admire the original. I wish I could! Thank you beforehand.
Acknowledgements "Much gratitude" sounds a bit off. I was going to suggest ending with, "Many thanks," but then I realized that you opened with "thanks." Rather than repeat the 'T' word at the end, perhaps something like, "Their kind assistance is greatly appreciated."
Thank you so much! I'm going with "Much appreciated" instead. My Acknowledgement lines are kind of short, not many details. Thanks!
