I would like to recommend a Web site that has given me many hours of pleasure and inspiration: the Art Renewal Center, at http://www.artrenewal.org/. The site contains “one of the largest on-line museums on the internet … that features tens of thousands of high quality images of the greatest painters and sculptors in human history.” And the site’s creators—led by Fred Ross, Chairman of ARC—know great art. Moreover, they are tireless champions of a renaissance of representational, romantic painting and sculpture in contemporary society.

I have downloaded more than 300 images from the site, and I use a slide show of them as my screen saver. Since doing so, I have marveled at how much more color I notice in the world.

For those with larger budgets than mine, the site also sells high-quality prints. And there is also a great deal of information about art and artists for the serious student of fine art.

These are some of my favorite artists on the site:

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Edmund Blair Leighton
William Bouguereau
Alexandre Cabanel
Caravaggio
Frank Dicksee
John William Godward
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
Lord Frederick Leighton
John Everett Millais
Raphael
Rembrandt
James Jacques Joseph Tissot
Vermeer
John William Waterhouse
George Frederick Watts
William Clarke Wontner

And there are hundreds more.

Also, here is a great source for high-resolution images of paintings by Vermeer: http://www.essentialvermeer.com/ .

Enjoy!