vangoghmuseum.nl APIvangoghmuseum.nl ↗
Access the Van Gogh Museum collection via API. Search artworks, retrieve full metadata, multi-resolution images, provenance, and collection filters.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/4aa2462d-3c4b-444f-b172-5aff7a992bd6/get_collection?query=sunflowers&offset=0' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Browse or search the museum collection. Returns a paginated list of artworks with basic info including title, creator, image URL, and link to the artwork page.
| Param | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| query | string | Search keyword to filter artworks (e.g. 'sunflowers'). Omitting returns the full collection. |
| offset | integer | Number of items to skip for pagination. |
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"count": "integer total number of items returned in this response",
"items": "array of artwork summary objects with id, title, creator, url, image_url, and position",
"offset": "integer offset used in this request"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"count": 11,
"items": [
{
"id": "s0031V1962",
"url": "https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0031V1962",
"title": "Sunflowers",
"creator": "",
"position": "1",
"image_url": "https://iiif.micr.io/TZCqF/full/200"
}
],
"offset": 0
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the vangoghmuseum.nl API
The Van Gogh Museum API provides access to the museum's art collection through 4 endpoints, covering artwork search, detailed metadata retrieval, and filter discovery. Using get_artwork_detail, you can pull a single work's title, description, artist, dimensions, provenance, credits, catalogue numbers (f-number, jh-number), and image URLs at thumbnail, medium, and large resolutions — all in one response.
Collection Browsing and Search
Two endpoints handle discovery: get_collection and search_artworks. Both return paginated lists of artwork summaries — each item includes an id, title, creator, url (link to the museum page), image_url, and position. get_collection accepts an optional query parameter; omitting it returns the full collection. search_artworks requires a query string (e.g. 'self-portrait', 'night'). Both support an offset integer for pagination, and both return a count field reflecting how many items came back in the current page.
Artwork Detail
get_artwork_detail takes a single required artwork_id — obtainable from any collection or search result — and returns the full record for that work. The metadata object contains structured fields: artist, dimensions, provenance, credits, object_number, f-number, and jh-number (the standard Van Gogh catalogue references). The images array provides multiple resolution variants: thumbnail, medium, and large URLs, plus an id per image. The tags array and free-text description field round out the record.
Filter Discovery
get_collection_filters takes no inputs and returns all available filter categories for the collection. Each category object includes a category label, a param_name for use in queries, a total_options count, and a values array where each entry has a name, value, and result count. Documented categories include On view, Artist, Location, Year, Object type, Genre, and Sub-collections — useful for building faceted browsing UIs or scoping batch requests to a specific artist or object type.
- Building a searchable gallery app using
search_artworksresults withimage_urlandtitlefields. - Aggregating Van Gogh catalogue data by pulling
f-numberandjh-numberfromget_artwork_detailmetadata. - Rendering faceted collection browsers using filter categories and counts from
get_collection_filters. - Displaying provenance and credits for individual works in an academic or educational context.
- Paginating through the full collection with
get_collectionandoffsetto build a local artwork index. - Feeding multi-resolution artwork images into a print-on-demand or digital exhibition pipeline using
largeimage URLs. - Filtering works by object type or year using values returned from
get_collection_filtersto scope targeted queries.
| Tier | Price | Credits/month | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 100 | 5 req/min |
| Hobby | $30/mo | 1,000 | 20 req/min |
| Developer | $100/mo | 5,000 | 250 req/min |
One credit = one API call regardless of which marketplace API you call. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.
Does the Van Gogh Museum have an official developer API?+
What catalogue identifiers does `get_artwork_detail` return?+
metadata object includes f-number (the De la Faille catalogue number) and jh-number (the Jan Hulsker catalogue number), alongside object_number, dimensions, provenance, and credits. These are the standard references used in Van Gogh scholarship.Does the API cover letters, drawings, and prints, or only paintings?+
get_collection_filters endpoint exposes an Object type category that breaks down available types and their counts.Does the API expose exhibition schedules or visitor information?+
How does pagination work across endpoints?+
get_collection and search_artworks accept an offset integer parameter to skip a given number of items. Each response returns a count of items in that page and echoes back the offset used, so you can step through the collection in batches.