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To cite an artwork, identify the artist, title, and date it was made, then say where you encountered it. A painting you saw in a gallery, an image on a museum website, a reproduction in a book, and a museum wall label are different sources and should not be cited as though they were the same thing. Use the style required by your class or publication; the examples below show how to adapt the basic information, especially for MLA.
First decide what you are citing
When you write about art, the source may be the artwork itself, a reproduction of it, or information someone wrote about it. Cite the source you actually consulted and use the citation to help readers identify that source.
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- The artwork in a gallery: Identify the artist, title, date of creation if known, and the museum or other location where you saw it.
- An image on a museum or database page: Identify the artwork and cite the webpage or database entry you viewed. Include its URL when the required style calls for one.
- An image in a book, magazine, or other publication: Cite the publication as well as the image; include the page number when applicable.
- A wall label or exhibition: Cite the label or exhibition separately if your claim comes from its wording, interpretation, or presentation rather than from the artwork alone.
Do not substitute the date an artwork was made for the publication date of a webpage, label, or book. These dates describe different things.
MLA: citing an artwork seen in person or online
MLA’s examples distinguish the physical artwork from its online image. The MLA Style Center examples discussed here are associated with the eighth edition and point readers to the ninth edition for current guidance. Follow the edition required by your instructor or publication, and consult the current MLA Handbook when you need a definitive format.
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Artwork seen in person
For an artwork viewed at a museum, MLA’s example is:
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This entry identifies the artist, artwork, its composition date, and the institution and city where it was viewed. Adapt the elements to the work you saw and the information available for it.
Artwork viewed on a museum website
For the same painting viewed online, MLA gives:
Bearden, Romare. The Train. 1975. MOMA, www.moma.org/collection/works/65232?locale=en.
Here, the website is the container and its page is the source consulted. The date shown is the artwork’s composition date, not the webpage’s publication date. The MLA Style Center explains: “If you viewed the same painting on the museum’s website, include the name of the website as the title of the container, followed by the publisher of the website and the URL.”
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Use the museum’s collection page rather than a bare image file when the page provides the identifying information readers need. For this particular example, the cited MOMA record is Romare Bearden’s The Train in MoMA’s collection.
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Artwork reproduced in print or another online database
If you encountered the image in a book or periodical, include the publication information and page number where appropriate; the artwork’s own details do not replace the citation for that publication. If you used an image database such as Wikimedia, cite the database entry as the container and identify the page you consulted, rather than linking only to a raw image file when an informative entry is available.
Cite wall text and exhibitions as their own sources
Museum wall label
If you rely on a label’s interpretation or wording, cite the label rather than attributing that information to the artwork. MLA’s wall-text guidance uses a description of the wall text as the source title. Where relevant, include the associated artwork and artist, exhibition title and dates, museum, and city. Do not guess a label’s publication date or use the artwork’s creation date in its place; follow the required manual or instructor’s rule if a date is needed but not provided.
Exhibition
When the exhibition itself is the source—for example, when discussing its framing or presentation—identify the artist and artwork, then name the exhibition and its opening and closing dates, followed by the institution and city. MLA’s example concerns J. M. W. Turner’s Dieppe: The Port from the Quai Henri IV in Turner’s Modern and Ancient Ports: Passages through Time. Use the exhibition information for the one you attended rather than treating the artwork’s museum record as a substitute.
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How MLA, Chicago, and APA differ
The right format depends on the style assigned and on the kind of writing you are doing. The formats below are orientation, not interchangeable rules.
| Style | Useful starting point | Important qualification |
|---|---|---|
| MLA | Identify the artist, title, composition date, and location for an in-person work; for an online image, identify the website and URL. | The Style Center examples noted above relate to the eighth edition and point to the ninth edition for current guidance. Check the required edition. |
| Chicago | For an item in a museum collection, a caption or text may describe the work and credit the museum; an example includes period, material, dimensions, museum, and object number. | This is guidance for a museum object, not a universal note-and-bibliography rule. Check the current manual and local requirements for the exact form. |
| APA | A University of Technology Sydney library guide gives a practical museum-artwork pattern with artist, year, title, medium in brackets, museum and location; its museum-site example includes a URL. | The cited guide is a university library aid, not an official APA Style page. Verify the format against the current APA manual and assignment directions. |
If an instructor, journal, or publisher specifies a style or a local format, that instruction takes priority over a general example.
Credit is not permission to reproduce an image
A citation acknowledges a source and helps readers locate it; it does not by itself grant permission to publish an image. MLA advises crediting the source and providing a permissions note when reproducing a work that is not in the public domain. If you edit an image for publication, identify the edit in its caption and obtain the rights needed for publication. Discussing an artwork and reproducing its image are separate uses, so check the image’s rights and the publication’s requirements before including it.
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