Google Art Project

I don’t know about you, but I often fantasize about winning a hefty lottery and spending the rest of my life travelling the world, visiting art museums. Google has come up with something kind of like that for those of us that haven’t won the lottery yet.  With Google Art Project, you can search by artist name (in order of first name, oddly), artwork title, or museum collection. You can even sign up (for free) or sign in with your existing google account information, and create your own collections. Once you find a piece you want to look at, you can zoom in so close you can check the thread count on the canvas. It’s amazing.

So… chances are I will never see the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, home to the famous portrait of Fyodor Dostoyevsky by Vasily Perov.

A bit closer:

Even closer:

Some collections have EXTREMELY high resolution – like MoMA in NYC. Check out this zoom on Starry Night by Van Gogh.

You can even do a search by museum view – basically, Google Street View – inside museums. Like MAM, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, for instance. Check it out for yourself.

You can visit literally hundreds of museums around the world like this including  the Art Institute of Chicago, MoMA, Musée d’Orsay, Rijksmuseum, the State Russian Museum of St. Petersburg, the Tate Museum, et cetera.

So there you go: Google Art Project. Enjoy your trip!