1879 in art

Events

• April 10–May 11 – Fourth Impressionist exhibition in Paris, arranged by Gustave Caillebotte at 28 avenue de l'Opéra.
• Ford Madox Brown begins painting The Manchester Murals in Manchester Town Hall.
• Chicago Academy of Fine Arts established.
• Guimet Museum of Asian art established in Lyon, France.
• Museum of Fine Arts Berne established in Switzerland.
• Kate Greenaway's first book, with her own colour illustrations, Under the Window: Pictures & Rhymes for Children, is published in London.

  Works

• Michael Ancher – Vil han klare pynten
• Albert Fitch Bellows – The Parsonage
• William-Adolphe Bouguereau – The Birth of Venus
• William Burges – Golden Bed
• Edward Burne-Jones – '
• Edgar Degas
• * The Dance Lesson
• * Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando
• * '
• * Portraits at the Stock Exchange
• Gustave Achille Guillaumet – :File:Laghouat in the Algerian Sahara.jpg|Laghouat in the Algerian Sahara
• Ivan Kramskoi – :File:Kramskoj - saltykov-schedrin.jpg|Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin
• George Dunlop Leslie – :File:George Dunlop Leslie - Alice in Wonderland.jpg|Alice in Wonderland
• Édouard Manet
• * The Café-Concert
• * Self-Portrait with Palette
• * In the Conservatory
• John Everett Millais
• * :File:CherryRipe1879 by John Everett Millais.jpg|Cherry Ripe
• * :File:Louise Jane Jopling by Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Bt.jpg|Louise Jopling
• Albert Joseph Moore – Topaz
• Vasily Perov – Pugachev's Judgement
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir – The Dreamer
• John Singer Sargent
• *
• * Portrait of Carolus-Duran
• Charlotte Schreiber – :File:Charlotte Schreiber - The Croppy Boy.jpg|The Croppy Boy
• James Tissot – :File:Tissot Newton Parasol.jpg|Mrs. Newton with a Parasol

  Births

• January 13 – William Reid Dick, Scottish sculptor
• March 27 – Edward Steichen, American photographer, painter, and art gallery and museum curator
• June 4 – Mabel Lucie Attwell, English illustrator
• July 26 – Maria Bal, Polish model
• September 23 – Charles Camoin, French painter
• October 22 – Sir Matthew Smith, English painter
• November 18 – Sybil Pye, English bookbinder
• December 18 – Paul Klee, Swiss painter

  Deaths

• January 26 – Julia Margaret Cameron, British photographer in Ceylon
• February 10 – Honoré Daumier, French painter, sculptor and caricaturist
• March 21 – Valentine Bartholomew, English flower painter
• March 27 – Hércules Florence, French-born Brazilian painter and pioneer photographer
• March 30 – Thomas Couture, French painter and art teacher
• May 8 – Henry Collen, English royal miniature portrait painter
• June 24 – Eliseo Sala, Italian painter
• July 7 – George Caleb Bingham, American realist artist
• July 16 – Frederick Langenheim, German American pioneer of panoramic photography
• July 17 – Maurycy Gottlieb, Polish Jewish painter
• August 3 – Joseph Severn, English portrait and subject painter
• September 5 – Camille Doncieux, French first wife and model of Claude Monet
• September 6 – Amédée de Noé, French caricaturist
• September 8 – William Morris Hunt, American painter
• November 2 – Abbondio Sangiorgio, Italian sculptor
• November 18 – André Giroux, French painter and photographer
• December 1 – Franz Ittenbach, German religious painter
• Chō Kōran, Japanese poet and nanga artist