1804 in art

Events

• 30 April – The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1804 opens at Somerset House in London
• Sculptor Pompeo Marchesi wins a scholarship to study in Rome under Antonio Canova.
• The Society of Painters in Water Colours, predecessor of the Royal Watercolour Society, is founded in London, UK, by William Frederick Wells.

Works

• Louis-Léopold Boilly – The Studio of Jean-Antoine Houdon
• John Constable – The Bridges Family
• Johann Friedrich Dryander – French troops before Saint-Jean-lès-Sarrebruck
• Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson – Dominique Jean Larrey
• Francisco Goya – Portrait of María Tomasa Palafox, Marquesa of Villafranca
• Antoine-Jean Gros – Bonaparte Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa
• Thomas Douglas Guest – Madonna and Child
• John Hoppner – Portrait of William Pitt
• Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres – Bonaparte, First Consul
• Orest Kiprensky – Portrait of Adam Shvabler
• Thomas Lawrence
• *Portrait of Caroline of Brunswick
• *Portrait of Sir John Moore
• *Portrait of Sarah Siddons
• Louis-François Lejeune
• * The Battle of Aboukir
• * The Battle of Lodi
• Robert Lefèvre – Portrait of Carle Vernet
• Philip James de Loutherbourg – Banditti in a Landscape
• John Opie – Master Betty as Young Norval
• Stepan Shchukin – Portrait of Andreyan Zakharov
• Gilbert Stuart – Portrait of Dolley Madison
• George Stubbs – Ambrosio, a bay stallion, the property of Thomas Haworth
• J.M.W. Turner – Boats Carrying Out Anchors and Cables to the Dutch Men of War
• John Vanderlyn – The Death of Jane McCrea
• Benjamin West
• *
• *Thetis Bringing the Armor to Achilles
• David Wilkie
• *Pitlessie Fair
• *''''

Awards

• Grand Prix de Rome, painting:
• Grand Prix de Rome, sculpture:
• Grand Prix de Rome, architecture:
• Grand Prix de Rome, music:.

Births

• January 21 – Moritz von Schwind, Austrian painter
• February 21 – Charles-Joseph Traviès de Villers, French painter and caricaturist
• March 2 – Auguste Raffet, French illustrator and lithographer
• March 8 – Alvan Clark, American astronomer, telescope maker, portrait painter and engraver
• March 15 – Georgiana McCrae, English-born Australian painter
• April 4 – Andrew Nicholl, Irish painter
• April 16 – James Fahey, English landscape painter
• August 30 – Jacques Raymond Brascassat, French animal painter
• September 1 – John Scarlett Davis, English painter
• September 18 – John Steell, Scottish portrait sculptor
• September 27 – Anna McNeill Whistler, "Whistler's Mother"
• December 16 – Adèle Kindt, Belgian portrait and genre painter
• December 19 – Fitz Henry Lane, American luminist painter
• date unknown
• * Chō Kōran, Japanese poet and nanga artist
• * John Caspar Wild, Swiss-born American painter and lithographer

Deaths

• January 28 – Nils Schillmark, Swedish-born painter who lived and worked in Finland
• February 27 - Auguste-Louis de Rossel de Cercy, French painter primarily of naval scenes
• March 3 – Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Italian painter and printmaker in etching
• March 5 – Francis Sartorius, English painter of horses
• March 18 – Louis Jean Desprez, French painter and architect
• June 2 – Cornelius Høyer, Danish miniature painter
• October – Charles Grignion the Younger, British history and portrait painter and engraver
• October 29 – George Morland, English painter of animals and rustic scenes
• November 4 – Nicola Peccheneda, Italian painter
• November 5 – August Friedrich Oelenhainz, German painter
• November 18 – Charles-Étienne Gaucher, French engraver
• December 12 – John Boydell, English engraver
• December 17 – Pierre Julien, French sculptor
• December 24 – Moses Haughton the elder, English designer, engraver and painter of portraits and still life
• date unknown
• * Peter Haas, German-Danish engraver
• * Liu Yong, Chinese politician and calligrapher in the Qing Dynasty