Katsushika Hokusai, Thunder god, 1847 (Courtesy Freer Gallery of Art).
This is cool: In the Smithsonian Institute’s ongoing effort to digitize its entire collection, the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery—the Smithsonian’s joint museums of Asian and American art—have released images of their full collections online.
In a release, the museums state that more than 40,000 “masterpieces,” most of which have never been displayed publicly, are now available online not only to view, but are now free for public use.
With 40,000 images of priceless art to peruse, it can be difficult to browse through the collection. On the collection’s website, you can filter your search by object type, topic, name, culture, language, place, date, or when it was on view. Or, you know, just kill a few hours by browsing endlessly. It’s probably better than binge-watching old episodes of Buffy, or whatever.