The National Gallery Company Ltd has launched its new upgraded National Gallery picture library website, powered by Capture Ltd’s DAM and media library platform.

The Gallery houses the nation’s collection of over 2,600 paintings in the Western European tradition from the late 13th to the early 20th century.

The National Gallery Company embarked on the project in 2021, to develop a more scalable, powerful, and future-proof image library site for National Gallery Images, using Capture technology.

Key features include:

• Sophisticated permissions, allowing staff to manage their publicly published content and the rights associated with each asset, with ease and efficiency.
• Self-serving eCommerce, with an extensive, and unlimited price book, allowing users to license content quickly and independently, as well as allowing staff to update the price book as and when their licensing needs changes.
• Users can license differing versions of an image – for example, the picture itself, inframe paintings, and the various high-resolution ‘details’ are all readily available and can all be licensed directly from the platform.

Head of IT, and project lead, for the National Gallery, Richard Cross noted:

“Our Picture Library website was originally implemented in 2006 and since then technology and the features customers demand has changed considerably. By choosing Capture we were able to quickly update the site without large amounts of capital investment and at the same time improve the features, service, technology and security in the knowledge we were adopting a tried and tested platform in use by many other prominent Picture Libraries.”

Speaking of the project, Nick Caw, CEO at Capture Ltd, remarked:

“Our experience working with the team at the National Gallery Company on this project has been fantastic. Capture works with many household names in the cultural and heritage space, and it’s great to see another such significant, and remarkable, collection come on board. We’re delighted that we can help the National Gallery to elevate the value of their content, through improved accessibility, better control, and a seamless experience for both staff and diverse external audiences. I’d encourage everyone to take a look at the site, and the content displayed.”

Images from the National Gallery are ready to license directly at National Gallery Images.

About Capture

Capture is a digital asset management and media library provider. Specialising in media management, rights, licensing, metadata, finance and royalties, our configurable solutions and expert services help a range of organisations to manage, protect, license and maximise the value of images, video, documents, and all other digital content.

Whether it is integrating with various other internal systems, providing state-of-the-art image protection, or creating commercial ventures through monetisation of content – we’ve developed a highly flexible, secure cloud-based platform that can be configured for a variety of needs to manage the entire lifecycle of digital content, and an outsourcing department with creative experts to help with daily workflows.

About The National Gallery and The National Gallery Company:

The National Gallery is one of the greatest art galleries in the world. Founded by Parliament in 1824, the Gallery houses the nation’s collection of paintings in the Western European tradition from the late 13th to the early 20th century. The collection includes works by Bellini, Cézanne, Degas, Leonardo, Monet, Raphael, Rembrandt, Renoir, Rubens, Titian, Turner, Van Dyck, Van Gogh and Velázquez. The Gallery’s key objectives are to enhance the collection, care for the collection and provide the best possible access to visitors. Admission free. More at nationalgallery.org.uk.

The National Gallery Company’s primary purpose is to generate income for the National Gallery, through a number of commercial operations. The income generated supports the Gallery to care for the world’s greatest paintings – today and for generations to come.

Banner Image Credit: Titian. Bacchus and Ariadne. 1520-3 © The National Gallery, London.