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How To Read an Image Caption

By , About.com Guide

8 of 10

Where Can I Find This Work?

Screen capture provided by Shelley Esaak; Licensed to About.comScreen capture provided by Shelley Esaak; Licensed to About.com

The seventh line in our image caption example reads "Whitney Museum of American Art, New York." This tells us that Soir Bleu is owned by The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, and that is where we'd have to go to see the painting in person (unless it is currently out on loan to another museum).

This part of the caption is very often the last item. You'll read the name of the museum or collection, note that it is usually preceded by a copyright symbol (meaning the museum owns the reproduction rights to the image you're looking at) and that's that ...




... Of course, there are exceptions to this "last line" rule. There are also exceptions to museums being the legal copyrights holders. Please see the next page for more action-packed details.

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