How to Use Getty Open Content for Your Custom Zoom Background
Use these suggested backdrops to make your meetings more artistic
Assistant curator of manuscripts Larisa Grollemond has made this lovely illuminated manuscript her background of choice.
Body Content
Many of us are working from home, and keeping our distance from others.
Perhaps there’s a pet or a child keeping us company or getting in the way as we try to focus (insert #coworker joke here ). At Getty, our in-person meetings are now virtual, and some of us have turned to the custom Zoom background to help set the mood. Getty’s Open Content program includes over 100,000 images that are free and downloadable. This means they’re also fair game to use as your own custom background.
If you’re doing this yourself, first search for an image that resonates with you, download it at “presentation size” and crop the image to 1280 x 720 pixels. Now you can upload it to your custom background on Zoom.
Below, we collected some of our favorites to help you get going. Just drag and drop!
Landscapes
Work among the ruins in this 18th-century vision of ancient Roman monuments, temples, and statues.
Landscape with Classical Ruins and Figures, about 1725–1730, Marco Ricci. Oil on canvas, 48 1/2 × 63 1/2 in. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 70.PA.33
Camille Pissarro painted in the open air, along with his Impressionist colleagues. This autumn landscape will put you outside in a dreamy French town.
Landscape at Louveciennes (Autumn), 1870, Camille Pissarro. Oil on canvas, 35 × 45 3/4 in. Getty Museum, 82.PA.73
This 17th-century painting is called Landscape with a Calm, and evokes a mood that we all probably need right now.
Landscape with a Calm (Un Temps calme et serein), 1650–1651, Nicolas Poussin. Oil on canvas, 38 3/16 × 51 9/16 in. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 97.PA.60
At Sea
This is not a calm image; instead, ships navigate a turbulent sea. British painter Joseph Mallord William Turner shows the power of nature.
Van Tromp, going about to please his Masters, Ships a Sea, getting a Good Wetting, 1844, Joseph Mallord William Turner. Oil on canvas, 36 3/8 × 48 1/2 in. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 93.PA.32
Sunrise at Sea is a contemplative photograph, showing calm waters and a flash of early morning light.
Sunrise at Sea, 1887, Peter Henry Emerson. Photogravure, 7 1/8 × 6 1/16 in. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 84.XB.696.3.12
Cityscapes
Tourists would have purchased this type of painting as a souvenir to show their cultural sophistication. Now you can put yourself in the middle of Venice, Italy, in the 1700s.
View of the Grand Canal: Santa Maria della Salute and the Dogana from Campo Santa Maria Zobenigo, about 1743, Bernardo Bellotto. Oil on canvas, 54 3/4 × 93 1/4 in. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 91.PA.73
Or perhaps travel to Paris?
A View of Paris with the Ile de la Cité, 1763, Jean-Baptiste Raguenet. Oil on canvas, 18 1/8 × 33 1/4 in. Getty Museum, 71.PA.25
Flowers
Van Gogh’s Irises make a vivid and bold background.
Irises, 1889, Vincent van Gogh. Oil on canvas, 29 1/4 × 37 1/8 in. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 90.PA.20
While this vase of flowers is more subdued.
Vase of Flowers, 1722, Jan van Huysum. Oil on panel, 31 5/8 × 24 in. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 82.PB.70
A Bunny
Join this brightly painted hare in the forest, made by German painter Hans Hoffmann in the 1500s.
A Hare in the Forest, about 1585, Hans Hoffmann. Oil on panel, 24 1/2 × 30 7/8 in. Getty Museum, 2001.12
If you've found backgrounds that are working for you, let us know in the comments!
