Virtual Museum Tours
Travel from the comfort of your couch. Many museums around the globe are offering virtual tours. Just because you can’t be in Paris, doesn’t mean you can’t experience Paris.
MoMA, The Museum of Modern Art
New York City, United States
Founded in 1929, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in midtown Manhattan was the first museum devoted to the modern era. Today MoMA’s rich and varied collection offers a panoramic overview of modern and contemporary art, from the innovative European painting and sculpture of the 1880s to today's film, design, and performance art. Collection highlights include Claude Monet’s Water Lilies, Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night, and Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, along with more recent works by Andy Warhol, Elizabeth Murray, Cindy Sherman, and many others.
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Musée d’Orsay
Paris, France
In the centre of Paris on the banks of the Seine, opposite the Tuileries Gardens, the museum was installed in the former Orsay railway station, built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900. So the building itself could be seen as the first "work of art" in the Musee d'Orsay, which displays collections of art from the period 1848 to 1914. Peruse the virtual exhibition and 278 other pieces on Google, which include Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles, Degas’s The Ballet Class and Millet’s Gleaners.
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Uffizi Gallery
Florence, Italy
The Uffizi was designed by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 for Cosimo I de'Medici to house the Granducal Magistratures of Tuscany. Over time, the top floor loggia became an exhibition of the dynastic collection of ancient sculpture, artwork and artifacts.
Built over centuries, its holdings include some of Italy’s most important works from artists like Caravaggio (Medusa) and Raphael (Madonna of the Goldfinch). You can peruse 156 of them virtually.
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The J. Paul Getty Museum
Los Angeles, United States
The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center features works of art dating from the eighth through the twenty-first century, showcased against a backdrop of dramatic architecture, tranquil gardens, and breathtaking views of Los Angeles. The collection includes European paintings, drawings, sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, decorative arts, and European, Asian, and American photographs. Though visitors may not be able to appreciate either of those features in person, Google allows you to view nearly 16,000 pieces from the museum’s extensive holdings, including Rembrandt’s Rembrandt Laughing, Renoir’s La Promenade and Van Gough’s Irises.
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The Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, United States
The Art Institute of Chicago is a world-renowned art museum housing one of the largest permanent collections in the United States. An encyclopedic museum, the Art Institute collects, preserves, and displays works in every medium from all cultures and historical periods as well as hosts special exhibitions. With a collection of more than 260,000 artworks and artifacts, the museum has particularly strong holdings in Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting, early twentieth-century European painting and sculpture, contemporary art, Japanese prints, and photography. In 2009, the museum completed the largest expansion in its 130-year history, the internationally acclaimed Modern Wing designed by Renzo Piano. Incorporating the latest in green museum technology, the 264,000- square-foot Modern Wing is dedicated to modern and contemporary art, photography, architecture and design, and new museum education facilities.
Nearly 600 of those works are made accessible digitally through the Arts & Culture initiative, including Mary Cassatt’s The Child’s Bath, Cézanne’s The Basket of Apples and Julia Margaret Cameron’s portrait of Julia Jackson.
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Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Santa Fe, United States
To inspire all current and future generations, the Museum preserves, presents, and advances the artistic legacy of Georgia O’Keeffe and Modernism through innovative public engagement, education, and research. The organization behind the institution advocates for the advancement of her legacy and also cares for many of O’Keefe’s paintings, 30 of which are viewable online, including Above the Clouds 1, Autumn Trees-The Maple and Two Pink Shells.
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Detroit Institute of Arts
Detroit, United States
The DIA has been a beacon of culture for the Detroit area for well over a century. The DIA's collection is among the top six in the United States, comprising a multicultural and multinational survey of human creativity from prehistory through the 21st century. Among the notable acquisitionsre are Mexican artist Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry fresco cycle, which Rivera considered his most successful work, and Vincent van Gogh's Self Portrait, the first Van Gogh painting to enter a U.S. museum collection.
Among its most notable holdings accessible online are Frida Kahlo’s Self-Portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States, Caravaggio’s Marth and Mary Magdalene, and Ruysch’s Flowers in a Glass Vase.
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York City, United States
The Met presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy. The Museum lives in three iconic sites in New York City—The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Breuer, and The Met Cloisters. Millions of people also take part in The Met experience online.
Twenty-six virtual exhibits and over 200,000 documented works give digital viewers a taste of pretty much any art from nearly any era, from Pieter Bruegel The Elder’s The Harvesters to Chanel’s iconic suit.
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Museo Frida Kahlo
Mexico City, Mexico
La Casa Azul (The Blue House) was the place where Frida Kahlo, the most renowned Latin American artist in the world, came into this world, lived, and took her last breath. Nearly 70 examples of Kahlo’s personal effects, artworks and attire are accessible digitally, including the body cast she famously painted while ill and Self-Portrait Wearing a Velvet Dress.
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Tate Britan
London, United Kingdom
Tate Britain (known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery) is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in England, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, having opened in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the art of the United Kingdom since Tudor times, and in particular has large holdings of the works of J. M. W. Turner, who bequeathed all his own collection to the nation. It is one of the largest museums in the country.
Two-hundred and seventy works of arts––from Dante Gabriel Rosetti’s Proserpine to Millais’s Ophelia––are available through Google.
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La Galleria Nazionale
Rome, Italy
La Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea keeps the complete collection of international and Italian art from the XIX to the XXI century, composed of 20.000 artworks, including paintings, drawings, sculptures and installations and it represents the major artistic movements from the last two centuries. From Neoclassicism to Impressionism, Divisionism and Historical avant-gardes of the early twentieth century, Futurism, Surrealism, the most remarkable group of works from the ’20s to the ’40s, from the Novecento’s movement to the so-called Scuola Romana, from Pop Art to Arte Povera, contemporary art and artists from our time, and more are represented and showcased in La Galleria Nazionale’s collection and space.
Nearly 500 works from its collection are digitally documented, including Monet’s Ninfee Rosa, Antonio Canova’s Ercole e Lica and Boldini’s Ritratto di Mademoiselle Lanthèlme.
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The Rijksmuseum
Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Rijksmuseum is the museum of the Netherlands. Its world-famous masterworks from the Dutch Golden Age include the Milkmaid by Vermeer and Rembrandt's Night Watch. The Rijksmuseum itself is also a masterpiece. The collection is presented in a stunning building with amazing interior design. In 80 galleries 8,000 objects tell the story of 800 years of Dutch art and history, from the Middle Ages to Mondrian. Every year, over 2.5 million visitors travel through the ages and experience a feeling of beauty and sense of time.
Notable examples include Vermeer’s The milkmaid, Rembrandt’s Self Portrait and Verspronck’s Portrait of a Girl Dressed in Blue.
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Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
New York City, United States
Founded in 1937, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of art, primarily of the modern and contemporary periods, through exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and publications.
Over 200 works from its impressive holdings are viewable through Google’s portal, including Glenn Ligon’s Prisoner of Love #2 and Julieta Aranda’s Two shakes, a tick and a jiffy.
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National Gallery of Art
Washington D.C., United States
The National Gallery of Art – the nation's museum – preserves, collects, exhibits, and fosters an understanding of works of art. Explore exhibits such as Fashioning a Nation and Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting.
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Johannesburg Art Gallery
Johannesburg, South Africa
Browse more than 500 works from Africa's largest art gallery. Enjoy The Evidence of Things Not Seen. The Evidence of Things Not Seen, a reference in part to James Baldwin’s book of the same title, speaks to the intangible but pervasive nature of identity. Using works from the JAG collection exclusively by artists of colour, this exhibition looks at the influential role photography played as a visual weapon and means to document the struggle against apartheid.
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The Cloisters Museum and Gardens
New York City, United States
The Cloisters museum and gardens, which opened to the public in 1938, is the branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Located in Fort Tryon Park in northern Manhattan, The Cloisters was assembled from architectural elements that date from the twelfth through the fifteenth century.
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Whitney Museum of American Art
New York City, United States
As the preeminent institution devoted to the art of the United States, the Whitney Museum of American Art presents the full range of twentieth-century and contemporary American art, with a special focus on works by living artists. The Whitney is dedicated to collecting, preserving, interpreting, and exhibiting American art, and its collection—arguably the finest holding of twentieth-century American art in the world—is the Museum’s key resource.
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Virtual Singita Safari
This may not be a museum virtual tour, but it is just as interesting to see live wildlife from the comfort of your couch
Join Singita’s live game drives from the comfort of your home. They will bring you updates and sightings from the bush in real time. Follow their Instagram and Facebook feeds so you don’t miss any of these experiences in Africa’s most unspoilt and hidden locations.
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