Illustration Index to Australian Art: Help page

How to find an image of an art work listed in the Illustration Index

Please note: This is an index to Australian art works that have been reproduced in books and major exhibition catalogues. The Barr Smith Library does not have copies of the individual art works nor do we have anything to do with their copyright.
There is no point in asking us for a copy of an illustration or for permission to use a particular art work.

There are two main methods of finding a reproduction of an image that is indexed in Illustration Index to Australian Art.

[1] Use the Picture Australia database

You may wish to start by checking the National Library of Australia database, Picture Australia. Bear in mind, though, that, apart from the Print collection at the National Gallery of Australia, and items in the National Portrait Gallery, the Picture Australia database doesn't cover any of the major Australian art galleries.
There is a link to Picture Australia at the top of all the alphabetical pages of the Illustration Index, or you can link from here:

[2] Find the publication containing the art work

The surest way to find an individual art work that you have looked up in this Index is to locate a copy of the publication in which the art work appears. That's the primary purpose of Illustration Index to Australian Art.

Let's say you are looking for a reproduction of John Dowie's Fishermen, Port Willunga.
Look up Dowie, John in the Search by artist section of the Index:

This will take you to the D section of the Alphabetic list of artists:

Note: If you have searched for an Australian art work using Google, it will often link you to the Alphabetic list: Entries arranged by last name of artist page of our Illustration Index to Australian Art, as shown in the above screen shot.

To find the image of your art work, follow the steps below:

Scroll through the list to find the name of the artist. Then locate the title of the art work you are looking for [John Dowie's Fishermen, Port Willunga] :

You'll notice that every art work has a four-letter code, followed by a page number, which tells you where you will find that work. In this case, the code is TAAD.
When you have found the code, write it down together with the page number that follows. You'll need this information to track down the book.
Now scroll back to the top of the page and click on the icon List of Books Indexed:

Click on letter 'T' in the Books indexed list to find the code TAAD:

The entry under TAAD will give you the full details of the book that contains the art work you are looking for:

You now know that you can find a reproduction of John Dowie's Fishermen, Port Willunga on page 150 of a book with the title A treasury of Australian art from the David Levine collection published in Adelaide by Rigby in 1981.

Now scroll back to the top of the page and click on the Libraries Australia icon:

The Libraries Australia database lets you search the collections of all the major Australian libraries to see if a copy of the book that has a picture of your art work is held by an Australian library:

When you have found your book click on the Get this item button:

Then consult the list of libraries to see if there is one near you that has the book in its collection.

If, say, you live in Brisbane, you might want to find out more about the Brisbane City Council Libraries entry. Do this by clicking on the About this library button:

If no library near to you has a copy of the book you want, you should ask at your local library to see if they can arrange to get a copy for you on interlibrary loan.

Illustration Index to Australian Art
Copyright © Print edition: La Trobe University Library 1990
Copyright © Electronic edition: University of Adelaide Library 2000