How to Use Getty Open Content for Your Custom Zoom Background

Use these suggested backdrops to make your meetings more artistic

Larisa wears glasses and a green top. Behind her is an illustrated deer with antlers, and illuminated swirls of blue, green, yellow and red.

Assistant curator of manuscripts Larisa Grollemond has made this lovely illuminated manuscript her background of choice.

By Caitlin Shamberg

Apr 01, 2020

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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.

People, and a dog, exploring mostly intact, white buildings with columns, overgrown with greenery. To the left. a sculpture of a reclining male nude with a cloth across his lap.

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.

An adult and child walk on a road. Behind them are brown houses and a few trees and bushes.

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.

A red-garbed shepherd and his dog herd goats on a hillside overlooking a lake. Along the lake are a house, a person on a horse, and a herd of cows, and beyond them, a walled castle or fortress.

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.

A choppy sea with a sailboat leaning away on the left, and on the right a smaller boat with no sail. More sailboats are in the background.

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.

Black and white photo of two sailboats on quiet waters with the sun behind and to the left.

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.

A canal with small boats, each manned by 2-3 people. A building with arched windows is on the left, and across the canal are more buildings, one with several domes on top.

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?

Cityscape on a cloudy day, along a river or canal. Barges are docked on the nearby sandy short as people unload their goods. Across the water are buildings, one with a large dome. A bridge spans the water in the distance.

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.

Purple flowers with bright green leaves and stems.

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.

Basket of flowers, with a bird nest next to it.

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.

Brown bunny lying in front of trees, surrounded by brush and small creatures like snails, lizards, butterflies, and a bird in the top right corner.

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!

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