HADC Citation Style Guide: Citing Art Online

Citing artwork is key in maintaining academic and moral integrity in your work—you want to make sure credit is given to the art and author/artist, and an additional goal is to make sure that people who read your work can see where your sources came from. This will enable you to identify and retrieve your sources (in this case, artworks) in the future.

The Chicago Manual of Style – 18th Ed.

Chicago Style is a citation style commonly used in fields like the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. If available, when citing online artwork in the Chicago Style, a museum accession number should be included. This number is created by the collection or museum when it comes into their collection, so it can be identified and tracked. The accession number will help you and others find the piece in retrospect! When creating entries for your Works Cited, you will first need to also cite the author/artist’s last name, first name, the work’s title in italics, a date corresponding to the work’s conception, the medium, the location, and URL. Below are examples of Chicago-style citations for artwork from the HADC/WCA collection.

Sometimes it is the case that information about the artwork you are trying to cite will be missing. Example 1 shows a citation for a work whose information is available. However, if the date is missing, as shown in example 2, add the date you accessed it in place of the artwork’s date. If the artist’s name is missing, as shown in example 3, omit any name and instead begin your citation with the title of the artwork. If the title of the artwork is missing, as shown in example 4, insert a brief description of the source in place of the title. Finally, remember to alphabetize your works cited, add a hanging indent, and double-space your bibliography or works cited.

  1. Amina Simeon. Baron (Flag), 1999, textile, 25.75 x 28.13 in. (65.41 x 71.44 cm.), Waterloo Center for the Arts, Iowa, object no. 2001.0063,https://digital.grinnell.edu/islandora/object/grinnell%3A34748.
  2. Edgar, Jean-Louis. Americaine Magi, Accessed January 6, 2025, textile, 27.25 x 28 in. (69.22 x 71.12 cm), Waterloo Center for the Arts, Iowa, object no. 2001.0179, https://digital.grinnell.edu/islandora/object/grinnell%3A34752.
  3. Sirenes, 1999, metal, 23.5 x 24 in. (59.69 x 60.96 cm.), Waterloo Center for the Arts, Iowa, object no. 2010.0105,  https://digital.grinnell.edu/islandora/object/grinnell%3A34817.
  4. Alphonse, Fritzner. Nude woman holding bird and flowers, 1977, 37.75 x 23 in. (95.89 x 58.42 cm.), Waterloo Center for the Arts, Iowa, object no. 2007.0253, https://digital.grinnell.edu/islandora/object/grinnell%3A34772.

Chicago Style In-Text Citation: Author-Date vs. Notes and Bibliography

While the Works Cited format as demonstrated above will be consistent across all styles of Chicago Citation, there are two categories of in-text citation: Author-Date and Notes and Bibliography.

Author-Date uses in-text parenthetical citation, including the author/artist’s last name followed by the date. The punctuation for the whole sentence comes after the parentheses. If the name is unavailable, use the first few words of the title instead. For example, if this sentence refers to source number 1 from the list above, its parenthetical citation would look like this: (Lastname 2025).

Notes and Bibliography uses numbered footnotes and endnotes. Footnotes are inserted after a sentence’s ending punctuation. Footnotes are numbered and correspond with the number of the endnote at the bottom of the page. The first time you reference a source in a sentence with a footnote, its corresponding endnote will include more information than the subsequent citations of the same source, which will take a shortened form demonstrated below.

Bibliography Entry:

Footnote:

Shortened Footnote:

  • Simeon, Baron (Flag).

If you have more questions relating to the Chicago Style citation, here is the link to The Chicago Manual of Style’s official website and guide.

Modern Language Association (MLA Style) – 9th Ed.

MLA is a citation style typically used in fields such as Language Studies. The key components of citing online artworks in MLA are the author/artist’s last name, first name, the title of the work in italics, the artwork’s date, the collection/museum, location, the medium (if relevant), and finally the URL.

Sometimes it is the case that information about the artwork you are trying to cite will be missing. Example 1 shows a citation for a work whose information is available. However, if the date is missing, as shown in example 2, instead of adding a date, add the date you accessed it at the end of the citation. If the artist’s name is missing, as shown in example 3, omit any name (do not list the artist as “anonymous”). Instead, begin your citation with the artwork’s title and proceed as usual. If the title of the artwork is missing, as shown in example 4, insert a brief description of the source in place of the title, capitalizing the first letter as well as any proper nouns. Finally, remember to alphabetize your Works Cited, add a hanging indent to each source, and to double-space your Works Cited without skipping lines between entries.

  1. Simeon, Amina. Baron (Flag). 1999. Waterloo Center for the Arts,                                        https://digital.grinnell.edu/islandora/object/grinnell%3A34748.
  2. Edgar, Jean-Louis. Americaine Magi. Waterloo Center for the Arts. Textile.                     https://digital.grinnell.edu/islandora/object/grinnell%3A34752. Accessed Jan. 6, 2025.
  3. Sirenes. 1999. Waterloo Center for the Arts,                                                                 https://digital.grinnell.edu/islandora/object/grinnell%3A34817
  4. Alphonse, Fritzner. Nude woman holding bird and flowers. 1977. Waterloo Center for the Arts, https://digital.grinnell.edu/islandora/object/grinnell%3A34772.

MLA In-Text Citation

MLA in-text citation uses parenthetical citation that includes the author/artist’s last name. If a page number is relevant, it is typically added after the last name; however, when citing online artwork, this is not the case. The punctuation for the sentence will follow the parentheses. For example, if this sentence is referring to source number 1 from the list above, its parenthetical citation would look like this: (Simeon). If a last name is not available, you would use the first few words of the title inside these parentheses instead.

If you have further questions about MLA formatting, the Purdue University Online Writing Lab has this amazing guide.

American Psychological Association (APA Style) – 7th Ed.

APA is a citation style used in fields such as Science and Mathematics. The key components of an APA citation for online artwork include the author/artist’s last name, first and middle initials, the work’s date in parentheses, the work’s title in italics, followed by medium or description of the format in brackets, the collection name, its location, including country, state if applicable, city, and finally the URL.

Sometimes it is the case that information about the artwork you are trying to cite will be missing. Example 1 shows a citation for a work whose information is available. However, if the date is missing, as shown in example 2, in place of the artwork’s date write “(n.d.)”, which stands for “no date”. If the artist’s name is missing, as shown in example 3, omit any name and instead begin your citation with the title of the artwork. If the title of the artwork is missing, as shown in example 4, insert a brief description of the source surrounded by brackets in place of the title. Finally, remember to alphabetize your Works Cited, add a hanging indent to each source, and to double-space your Works Cited without skipping lines between entries.

  1. Simeon, A. (1999). Baron (flag). [Textile]. Waterloo Center for the Arts, Waterloo, IA, United States.  https://digital.grinnell.edu/islandora/object/grinnell%3A34748
  2. Edgar, J. (n.d.). Americaine magi. [Textile]. Waterloo Center for the Arts, Waterloo, IA, United States.     https://digital.grinnell.edu/islandora/object/grinnell%3A34752
  3. (1999). Sirenes. [Metal]. Waterloo Center for the Arts, Waterloo, IA, United States. https://digital.grinnell.edu/islandora/object/grinnell%3A34817
  4. Alphonse, F. (1997). [Nude woman holding bird and flowers]. [Oil on canvas]. Waterloo Center for the Arts, Waterloo, IA, United States.  https://digital.grinnell.edu/islandora/object/grinnell%3A34772

APA In-Text Citation

APA in-text citation uses parenthetical citation that includes the author/artist’s last name followed by the work’s date. If a page number is relevant, it would typically be added after the last name; however, when citing artwork online this is not usually the case. The sentence’s ending punctuation will follow the parenthesis. For example, if this sentence refers to source number 1 from the list above, its parenthetical citation would look like this: (Simeon, 1999). If a last name is not available, you would use the first few words of the title in place of the last name in the parenthetical, still followed by the date.

If you have further questions about APA formatting, here is the link to the American Psychological Association’s official website and Style and Grammar Guidelines.

International Citation

French Canada:

https://learn.library.torontomu.ca/french/citations

  • APA, MLA, and Chicago most commonly used to cite in French according to Toronto Metropolitan Museum Libraries

Haiti + Kreyol

JOHS has its own style guidelines:

France:

Overall, it seems like MLA is the most standard throughout global academia and handles translation well