Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Our Aberdeen: Happy Public Domain Day!

Woman with Cat, Jankel Adler, 1944
Woman with Cat, Jankel Adler, 1944

Copyright is an important issue for museums and galleries in today’s digital world. Everyone is always looking for the next great image to like and share on their favourite website or app.

Although Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums owns the artwork in our collections, we must be careful about whether we are actually allowed to reproduce images of the work.

Copyright exists to protect creators of original artistic works, giving them the right to permit or prevent other people from copying it, taking credit for it, or basically making money from it themselves. What this means is that we can only publish an image, for example on these pages or online, if the artist or their copyright holders have given permission for us to do so.

Except nothing lasts forever, and copyright protection in the UK only applies for 70 years from the end of the year in which the artist who created the work dies.

Then, on January 1 of the following year, the work becomes part of the Public Domain, and those who own the work are free to reproduce the image as they please, such as in a local newspaper column!

And so, given we are at the start of the new year, here are some examples of the works of artists who died in 1949 and are no longer protected by copyright.

 width=
Local Defence Volunteer Edward Baird, 1939

Montrose-born Edward Baird died aged just 44, after a life of poor health that included chronic asthma and heart trouble.

He studied his subjects in great detail and worked very slowly as a result, producing little more than 35 paintings in his short life. You can see this painting in Gallery 15: Paradise Lost at Aberdeen Art Gallery.

 width=
Visibility Moderate, Edward Wadsworth, 1934

A bad year for Edwards, 1949 also saw the death of Yorkshireman Edward Wadsworth, who wrote to Aberdeen Art Gallery in 1938 to express his pleasure at learning that they intended to purchase this picture, as much of his childhood had been spent in Mintlaw, Aberdeenshire.

You can see this paintings in Gallery 16: Shoreline at Aberdeen Art Gallery.

 width=
Woman with Cat, Jankel Adler, 1944

And finally, here’s a lady and her cat. Or, more accurately, a cat and her lady! If anything on that table gets knocked over, the woman only has herself to blame, right kitty? Happy meow year!

This article originally appeared on the Evening Express website. For more information, read about our new combined website.