Artwork & Painting Citation Generator
Cite a painting, sculpture, or artwork — seen in a museum or online — in seconds. Enter the artist, title, year, medium, and museum and get a complete, formatted citation in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and 10,832 styles. Free, no sign-up.
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How to Cite an Artwork
- 1. Enter the artwork details. Type the artist, the work's title, the year it was created, and the medium — oil on canvas, marble, photograph. Name the museum or gallery that holds it along with its city; if you viewed the work online, paste the URL of the page instead.
- 2. Pick a style. Choose APA, MLA, Chicago, or any of the 10,832 styles. APA puts the medium in brackets after the title — [Painting], [Sculpture] — while MLA lists the museum and city as the container after the year.
- 3. Generate. We build a full artwork reference. Edit any field, then copy it or export to BibTeX, RIS, CSV, or Word.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do I generate a citation for an artwork?
- Enter the artist, the artwork's title, the year it was created, the medium (oil on canvas, marble, photograph), and the museum or gallery that holds it — or the URL if you viewed it online — then pick your citation style and click Generate Citation. The source type is preset to artwork, so the fields map to the right CSL graphic record.
- How do I cite a painting in APA?
- APA 7th format: Artist, A. A. (Year). Title of work [Painting]. Museum Name, City, Country. The medium goes in brackets after the italicized title — [Painting], [Sculpture], [Photograph] — and the museum with its location acts as the source. If you saw it on the museum's website, add the URL after the location.
- How do I cite artwork in MLA?
- MLA 9th lists the artist, the italicized title, the year of creation, and then the institution and city as the container: Van Gogh, Vincent. The Starry Night. 1889, Museum of Modern Art, New York. MLA does not require the medium, but you may add it at the end if it helps. For an online image, add the website and URL as a second container.
- How do I cite an artwork I saw online instead of in person?
- Cite the physical work as usual — artist, title, year, medium, and the museum that holds it — then add the URL of the page where you viewed it. If the image appears on a site unrelated to the holding museum (e.g. Wikimedia Commons or Google Arts & Culture), name that website and give its URL so readers can find the exact reproduction you used.
- What if the artwork has no date or the artist is unknown?
- For an unknown date, use 'n.d.' in APA or 'circa' with an approximate year if the museum provides one (c. 1503). For an anonymous artist, start the citation with the artwork's title; do not write 'Anonymous' unless the work is actually credited that way by the museum.
- Is the artwork citation generator free?
- Yes. It is 100% free with no sign-up, no ads, and no limits — and it supports all 10,832 styles in our library, including APA 7th, MLA 9th, Chicago, and Harvard. Your citations are saved locally in your browser and can be exported to BibTeX, RIS, CSV, or Word.