How to Search Art Collections by Theme, Mood, or Style on Semantic Art Search

Semantic Art Search lets you find artworks by describing what you're looking for in plain language—a theme, mood, style, or scene—rather than guessing exact titles or artist names. Type a phrase into the search field, optionally narrow the results with museum and work-type filters, then open any result to read a generated description or use "Find similar" to branch into visually or semantically related works. This guide covers the full workflow, from the first query to following a chain of similar pieces.

What you can search by

The search field accepts natural-language phrases, not just keywords. The site's own example prompts show the range of things you can describe:

• Subject or scene — "Breastfeeding," "Bible scene," "Human anatomy," "Fish still life," "Ship in a storm"
• Mood or feeling — "Existential dread," "Mourning," "Sorrow," "Inside cathedral"
• Style or movement — "Cubism," "Orientalism"
• Setting or light — "Sunset over water," "Moonlight by the sea," "Winter landscape"
• Objects or motifs — "Persian carpet," "Windmill," "Colorful flowers in a vase," "White dog with spots"
• Named references — "Rembrandt," "Ancient Rome"

You can also combine these ideas in one phrase (for example, a mood plus a setting) since the search works on meaning rather than exact word matches.

Step-by-step: running a search

1. Enter your description. Type a natural-language phrase into the search box—something like "mourning" or "sunset over water." The search interprets the meaning of the phrase, so you don't need to match catalog wording.

2. Optionally filter by museum. The museum selector lists the collections included, with work counts shown. You can leave it on "All Museums" or pick specific ones. The available collections and their listed counts are:

   Museum	Works listed
   Metropolitan Museum of Art	61,606
   Rijksmuseum	49,803
   Art Institute of Chicago	32,203
   Statens Museum for Kunst (SMK)	19,338
   Cleveland Museum of Art	16,227
   National Gallery of Art, Washington	2,916
   All Museums (combined)	182,093

3. Optionally filter by work type. The work-type selector lets you restrict results to a format. Listed types and counts include:

   Work type	Works listed
   Drawings	83,719
   Prints	72,900
   Paintings	24,576
   Designs	7,294
   Watercolors	4,239
   Miniatures	1,467
   Gouaches	634
   Aquatints	588
   Busts	567
   Pastels	248

4. Review the results. Matching works appear as a set of results you can browse. If the first phrase is too broad or too narrow, adjust the wording—swapping a mood word or adding a setting often shifts the result set meaningfully.

Using "Find similar" to keep exploring

Once you open a work, the Find similar option surfaces other pieces that are visually or semantically close to it. This is the main way to move from one good result into a cluster of related works without writing a new query. It's useful when you've found something that matches your intent but want more in the same vein—for example, more works sharing a composition, palette, or subject.

Getting context with "Tell me about this artwork"

Each artwork page includes a Tell me about this artwork option. Selecting it generates a description of the piece (the interface shows a "Generating description..." state while it works, and you can regenerate it). Use this when you want background or an interpretation without leaving the search flow.

Practical tips

• Start with a concrete phrase, then loosen it. If "mourning" returns too much, try "mourning" plus a setting or object.
• Use filters to cut noise, not to search. Filters narrow an existing result set by museum or format; the meaning of your query still does the main work.
• Treat "Find similar" as your browsing tool. It's faster than re-querying when you already like one result.
• Combine a mood with a subject when a single word feels vague—mood words like "existential dread" or "sorrow" work well paired with a scene.

Quick reference