Google Art Project

I've recently learned about Google Art Project (http://www.googleartproject.com/), which is an initiative to digitize the contents of the world's great art museums. It allows you to take virtual tours through the galleries (or some of the galleries) and then zoom in on the paintings, providing a real close-up view -- you can see the cracks in the paint and everything. There are also viewing notes with background on the paintings.

Unfortunately, most of the paintings on view so far are not from the nineteenth-century and the museums do not include the Musée d'Orsay, or the Chicago Art Institute, which have notable collections of Impressionist art. I was unable to find any of the paintings that I showed in class today, but here is a different painting by Manet:

Edouard Manet, In the Conservatory

Nonetheless, it's a great resource for those of you interested in looking at paintings up close and lacking the means -- for the moment -- to travel. And presumably they will add more artwork in the future (when Google takes over the world ...).