Research and Instruction Librarian for Music & Fine Arts
Citation Styles for Art
Always check with your instructor to be sure you are using the correct citation style.
Most art history research uses either MLA style or Notes-Bibliography Chicago style.
Citing Artworks
The citation links at Purdue OWL (given above) cover many citation situations (articles in journals, YouTube videos, etc.), but they do not offer examples of how to cite works of art. Here are some general instructions for citing artworks.
MLA Style for Works Cited Pages
Note: punctation for citations can vary depending on whether you viewed the art in person, online, or in a book. For exact details, consult "Visual Art" in Appendix 2 of the 9th edition of the MLA Handbook.
Basic format:
Author Last, Author First. Title of Art. Date. How you accessed it.
Viewed in person -- indicate the exhibition or museum where you saw the art, including the city where the museum is located
Hopper, Edward. Nighthawks. 1942, Art Institute, Chicago.
Viewed online -- indicate the name of the website where you saw the art, as well as the URL for the image
In a book -- indicate the book where you found the image, including title, author, publisher, publication date, and page number
Chicago Style for Bibliographies
Note: Chicago Style asks you to provide information about the size and media of the art work, but it also suggests you incorporate this information in the text of your writing, rather than in a footnote. For more information, consult the Chicago Manual of Style.
Basic format (for footnotes, not bibliographies; see the Chicago Manual of Style for examples of footnotes):
Author First Last, Title of Art, date, medium, size, how you accessed it.
Viewed in person -- indicate the exhibition or museum where you saw the art, including the city where the museum is located
Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942, oil on canvas, 33 1/8 x 60", Art Institute, Chicago.
Viewed online -- indicate the name of the museum or gallery and the URL for the image
In a book -- cite the page and/or plate number for the book where you found the image; notice that the focus here is pointing your readers to the source book, not the original artwork.