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This was originally written by David J.C. Briggs on the Conceptart.org forums. (The original post can be found here .) All credit goes to him for compiling this list, I'm just passing the word on.

The Internet Archive is a massive digital library that stores all sorts of material in the public domain, from music and movies to images, webpages and nearly three million books. All of this is open-source and available to the general public free of charge. The books documented below cover all sorts of subjects from different eras, from anatomy to portraiture, fashion to architecture, from the works of Leonardo Da Vinci to the letters of Vincent van Gogh.

And this is only scratching the surface! If you head over to the Archive and search for whatever subjects catches your interest most you can find much, much more. Just select "Texts" in the search box at the top of the page.

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Bridgman, George B., 1939. The Human Machine

Bridgman, George B., 1920. Constructive anatomy

Blake, Vernon, 1927. The Art And Craft Of Drawing

Crane, Walter, 1914. Line & Form

De Laszlo, 1934. Painting a Portrait

Eastlake, Sir Charles Lock. Methods And Materials Of Painting Of The Great Schools And Masters
Volume One
Volume Two

Guptill, Arthur Leighton,1922. Sketching and Rendering in Pencil

Holmes, C. J. 1920. Notes on the science of picture-making

Poore, Henry Rankin, 1903. Pictorial composition and the critical judgment of pictures

Ross, Denman Waldo, 1907. A theory of pure design; harmony, balance, rhythm

Ruskin, John. The elements of drawing (1920 edition)

Stone, Irving And Jean, 1962. I, Michelangelo, Sculptor (Michelangelo's Letters)

Whistler, James McNeill, 1909. The gentle art of making enemies, as pleasingly exemplified in many instances, wherein the serious ones of this earth, carefully exasperated, have been prettily spurred on to unseemliness and indiscretion, while overcome by an undue sense of right.

Ludovici, Anthony Mario, 1912 - The letters of a post-impressionist; being the familiar correspondence of Vincent van Gogh

Gauguin, Paul, 1919. Noa Noa. Translated from the French by O.F. Theis

Vasari, Giorgio. Lives of the most eminent painters, sculptors & architects (complete in ten volumes).
Volume One
Volume Two
Volume Three
Volume Four
Volume Five
Volume Six
Volume Seven
Volume Eight
Volume Nine
Volume Ten

Mount, Charles Merrill, 1955. John Singer Sargent - A Biography

Marillier, H. C. 1912.
The Early Work of Aubrey Beardsley
The later work of Aubrey Beardsley

Quennell, Peter, 1955. Hogarth's Progress

Clapp, 1916 - Jacopo Carucci da Pontormo, his life and work

Panofsky, Erwin, 1955. The Life and Art of Albrecht Durer

Strange, Edward Fairbrother, 1906. Hokusai, the old man mad with painting

Whistler (lots)

Clark, Kenneth. The Romantic Rebellion

Clark, Kenneth, 1949. Landscape into Art

Panofsky, Erwin, 1955. Meaning In The Visual Arts - Papers In and On Art History

10 works illustrated by NC Wyeth

30+ works illustrated by Howard Pyle (+ 10 on Gutenberg)

28 works by, or illustrated by Walter Crane

Pen Illustration

Maginnis, Charles. Pen Drawing - An Illustrated Treatise

Sullivan, Edmund J. 1921. The Art Of Illustration

Sullivan, Edmund J. 1922. Line - an art study

Imagination

Ribot, Th. 1906. Essay on the creative imagination

Rhoades, James, 1908. The training of the imagination

Composition

Dow, Arthur Wesley, 1913. Composition; a series of exercises in art structure for the use of students and teachers

Perspective

Loomis, Andrew, 1951. Successful Drawing (direct download)

Storey, G. A. The Theory and Practice of Perspective (direct download)

Watson, Ernest W., 1955. How To Use Creative Perspective (poor scans)

Longfellow, William Pitt Preble, 1901. Applied perspective, for architects and painters

Miller, Leslie William, 1887. The essentials of perspective, with illustrations drawn by the author.

Great collection of scholarly articles on history of perspective

Architecture

Robinson, John Beverley, 1914. Architectural Composition

Other architectural highlights include 50+ elaborately illustrated volumes of the journal known successively as Architecture, American architect and architecture, and Architectural record plus numerous volumes both on the history of architecture in general, and on specific styles including Egyptian, Greek, Byzantine, Norman, Gothic, Romanesque, Medieval, Muslim, Indian, etc.

Fashion

Ellsworth, Evelyn Peters, 1917. Textiles and costume design

Traphagen, Ethel, 1918. Costume design and illustration

Leonardo Da Vinci

Clark, Kenneth, 1952. Leonardo Da Vinci An Account Of His Development As An Artist

Hind, Charles Lewis. Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci

Richter, Jean Paul, The literary works of Leonardo da Vinci (Volume 1 and 2)
The same illustrated edition of Leonardo notebooks that was reprinted by Dover.
Volume One
Volume Two

Books illustrated by Arthur Rackham

Vernon Jones, V. S.1916. Æsop's fables: a new translation

Gates, Eleanor, 1907. Good-night (Buenas noches)

Morley, Christopher, 1922. Where the blue begins

Ibsen, Henrik, [19--?]. Peer Gynt: a dramatic poem

Stephens, James, 1920. Irish fairy tales

Fitz-Gerald, S. J. Adair (Shafto Justin Adair),1896. The Zankiwank & the Bletherwitch

Evans, C. S., 1920. The sleeping beauty

Books illustrated by N.C. Wyeth

The throwback : a romance of the Southwest (1906)

Arizona nights (c1907)

Whispering Smith (1908 [c1906)

The song of Hiawatha (c1908 )

Susanna and Sue (c1909)

The long roll (1911)

Treasure Island (c1911)

Cease firing (1912)

The sampo; a wonder tale of the old North ([c1912])

Blackfeet Indian stories (c1913)

Letters of a woman homesteader (1914)

The drums of the 47th (c1914)

Nan of Music Mountain (1916)

The mysterious stranger: a romance (1916)

The black arrow: a tale of the two Roses ([c1916])

Robin Hood (1917)

The last of the Mohicans: a narrative of 1757 (1919)

Robinson Crusoe (1920)

The courtship of Miles Standish (1920)

Rip Van Winkle (c1921)

Poems of American patriotism (c1922)

Vandemark's folly (c1922)

Chapman's American Drawing Book

Chapman, J.G. (John Gadsby), 1847. The American drawing-book: a manual for the amateur, and basis of study for the professional artist: especially adapted to the use of public and private schools, as well as home instruction.
1847 edition (168 p.)
1847 edition (168 p.)
1858 edition (304 p.)
1870 edition (320 p.)

More Artists and their works

Heermann, Norbert, 1918. Frank Duveneck

Roof, Katharine Metcalf, 1917. The life and art of William Merritt Chase

Cox, Kenyon, 1914. Winslow Homer

Inness, George Jr,, 1917. Life, Art and Letters of George Inness

Hartmann, Sadakichi, 1910. The Whistler book; a monograph of the life and position in art of James McNeill Whistler

Macfall, Haldane, [1906?] Whistler

Furst, Herbert, 1920. Frank Brangwyn, R.A (woodcuts)

Sparrow, Walter Shaw, 1915. A Book of Bridges (illustr. Brangwyn)

Brooklyn Museum, 1921 - Historical paintings of the Slavic nations (Mucha's Slav Epic)