The Photo Agency website
This site offers more than 430,000 images. These photos of works of art which mostly belong to the Museums of France are of equal interest to professionals and the general public. The search engine has all the rigour of a professional document resource combined with versatility and ease-of-use provided by easy and direct access to the images. Professionals can order images online.
www.photo.rmn.fr
The online shop
Since 1999, the RMN has been providing web users with the opportunity to buy original and high quality art gifts, chosen from the products sold in the museum shops. To meet the never ending growth in demand from web users, the online shop has been re-vitalised by being re-designed. Since November 2007, it has been providing easier navigation, a listing of products by museum or by subject, and a product zoom function. This site benefits from the support of a high performing logistic platform and a secure payment system. Finally, it allows you to receive the Art Ticket, which is a small news bulletin about French museums.
www.boutiquesdemusees.fr
Scientific catalogues
The RMN considers publishing works on the museums’ permanent collections to be a public service. Online catalogues of collections are a continuation of the “scientific” publications which form an inventory of public collections. They make available to specialists all the information they could find in printed catalogues, whether summary, annotated or presented in the form of inventories and include precise texts on provenance, dating, history and the style of works from the collections presented.
In addition, new functionalities allow searching by index and refining search criteria to an advanced degree. Each work, which is reproduced in high definition colour, can be viewed on full screen and explored in the smallest detail using the navigable zoom. Information can also be saved in a personal folder.
Use of the Internet enables these scientific publications to touch a wider audience and to become genuine research tools which can be freely consulted by anyone.
In this way, the RMN has occupied first place in the field of scientific publishing of online catalogues since 2004, when the catalogue of masterpieces from the Grandidier collection of Chinese ceramics owned by the Asian Arts-Guimet National Museum first appeared, followed by the online catalogue for decorative outdoor sculptures from the Château de Versailles in 2005.
Online scientific publications:
- Masterpieces from the Grandidier collection of Chinese ceramics at the Asian Arts-Guimet National Museum
First catalogue to be published online in 2004. Around 2,000 artworks stored at the Guimet Museum.
www.guimet-grandidier.fr
- Versailles, decorative outdoor sculptures
Nearly 1320 sculptures which decorate the outdoors of buildings around the national estate of the Château de Versailles and de Trianon.
www.sculpturesversailles.fr
- Contemporary French ceramics, 1955-2005, from the National Museum of Ceramics, Sèvres
Went online on November 1st 2007. More than 520 pieces of contemporary ceramics kept at the Sèvres National Ceramics Museum.
www.ceramiques-contemporaines-sevres.fr
- Drawings at the Château de Pau
Went online on November 23rd 2008. More than 280 drawings kept at the Château de Pau National Museum.
www.dessinsdepau.fr
- Drawings from the Magnin collection
Went online in January 2008. 492 drawings and engravings by a collection of artists from the 17th to the 19th centuries from the collection of the Magnin Museum in Dijon.
www.dessins-magnin.fr
- Gallery of Mirrors at Versailles
Went online in June 2008. The collection of illustrations of the Gallery of Mirrors at the Château de Versailles, the sixth catalogue published online by the RMN.
www.galeriedesglaces-versailles.fr
History through images
www.histoire-image.org
The RMN aims to publish the cultural matter that is holds as a result of its activities (books, texts, images etc). With this in mind, it has joined forces with the Management of the Museums of France, the Department of Education and the Management of the Archives of France to create History through images. Online since December 2001, this website set itself the task of expanding knowledge of the past through works kept in the museums and archive documents relating to the period between 1789 and 1939.
At the beginning of 2008, nearly 800 unpublished texts, produced by historians and conservators, tried hard to highlight the historic aspect of around 1,500 works and documents which mostly came from French museums.
History through images is an educational project which is firstly aimed at teachers and then at students. This free site, which is accessible to all, also appeals to the curious or lovers of art and history who are looking for knowledge and aesthetic pleasure.
A monthly news bulletin announces the publication of new studies.
