1816 in art

Events

• February 5 – The bequest of the art collection of the 7th Viscount FitzWilliam to the University of Cambridge in England leads to the foundation of the Fitzwilliam Museum.
• March 21 – In Paris, the Académie de peinture et de sculpture is merged with the Académie de musique and the Académie royale d'architecture to form the Académie des Beaux-Arts.
• June – The Elgin Marbles are purchased by the British government from Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, for the British Museum in London.
• 26 October – Penance from Nicholas Poussin's first of two Seven Sacraments painting cycles owned by the Duke of Rutland is destroyed by fire at Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire, England.

Works

• Edward Bird
• * The Arrival of King Louis XVIII of France at Calais
• * The Embarkation of Louis XVIII at Dover
• Augustus Wall Callcott – The Entrance to the Pool of London
• John James Chalon – Napoleon on board the Bellerophon
• John Constable
• * The Quarters behind Alresford Hall
• * The Wheat Field
• * Wivenhoe Park
• * Weymouth Bay from the Downs above Osmington Mills
• Jacques-Louis David – Portrait of Étienne Maurice Gérard
• Arthur William Devis – Eliza O'Neill as Belvidera
• Pavel Đurković – Portrait of Vuk Karadžić
• Girodet – Portrait of Jacques Cathelineau
• Francisco Goya
• * The Duke of Osuna
• * Unfortunate events in the front seats of the ring of Madrid, and the death of the Mayor of Torrejón
• Antoine-Jean Gros – Portrait of the Duchess of Angoulême
• Pierre-Narcisse Guérin – Portrait of Henri de la Rochejaquelein
• Charles Robert Leslie – Portrait of John Quincy Adams
• John Linnell – Portrait of Richard Trevithick
• John Martin – Joshua Commanding the Sun to Stand Still upon Gibeon
• Rolinda Sharples – The Artist and her Mother
• William Mulready – The Fight Interrupted
• Horace Vernet
• * The Battle of Somosierra
• * ''The Death of Prince Poniatowski''

Births

• February 22 – Thomas Gambier Parry, English artist and art collector
• March 18 – Antonio Salviati, Italian glassmaker
• May 24 – Emanuel Leutze, German American painter date unknown – Paul Emile Chappuis, French-born photographer

Deaths

• January 15 – Ludwig Guttenbrunn, Austrian painter
• February 19 – Margareta Alströmer, Swedish painter and singer and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts
• June 12 – Yves-Marie Le Gouaz, French engraver
• June 16 – Carlo Antonio Porporati, Italian engraver and painter
• July 7 – Francis Towne, English water-colour painter
• July 11 – Philippe-Laurent Roland, French sculptor
• July 23 – William Alexander, English painter, illustrator and engraver
• August 4 – François-André Vincent, French painter
• August 7 – François-Joseph Duret, French sculptor
• August 13 – Pehr Hilleström, Swedish painter and teacher
• August 26 – Robert Fagan, Irish painter, diplomat and archaeologist date unknown
• * Henri Auguste, Parisian gold- and silversmith
• * Christian Gottlob Fechhelm, German portrait and historical painter
• * François-Guillaume Ménageot, French painter of religious and French historical scenes