1820 in art

Events

• April 8 - The Venus de Milo is discovered on the island of Melos.
• Publication of William Blake's prophetic book of coloured engravings, Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion, is completed in London with the first printing.

Works

• Martin Archer Shee – The Painter's Son
• William Beechey – Portrait of George Cockburn
• William Blake – The Ghost of a Flea
• Augustus Wall Callcott – A Dead Calm on the Medway
• Antonio Canova – George Washington
• John Constable
• * Dedham Lock and Mill
• * Hampstead Heath
• * Hampstead Heath with the Salt Box
• * Harwich Lighthouse
• * Salisbury Cathedral from Lower Marsh Close
• * Waterloo Bridge
• John Crome – Mousehold Heath
• George Cruikshank – Two Green Bags
• Johan Christian Dahl –
• William Etty
• *Female Nude in a Landscape
• François Gérard – Portrait of the Duke of Berry
• Francisco Goya – Self-portrait with Dr Arrieta
• Antoine-Jean Gros – Bacchus and Ariadne
• Chester Harding – Portrait of Daniel Boone
• Francesco Hayez - Pietro Rossi
• George Hayter
• *Portrait of Lord Holland
• *Venus Supported by Iris, Complaining to Mars
• William Hilton – Venus in Search of Cupid Surprises Diana
• John Jackson – Portrait of Antonio Canova
• Johann Peter Krafft – The Battle of Aspern-Essling
• Edwin Landseer – Alpine Mastiffs Reanimating a Distressed Traveller
• Thomas Lawrence – Portrait of Lord Liverpool
• Charles Robert Leslie – Londoners Gypsying
• Thomas Luny – Bombardment of Algiers
• John Martin – Macbeth
• Thomas Phillips – Portrait of Earl Grey
• Jean-Baptiste Regnault
• *The Judgement of Paris
• *Love and Hymen drinking from the cup of Friendship
• Joseph Karl Stieler - Portrait of Beethoven
• John Trumbull – Surrender of Lord Cornwallis
• J. M. W. Turner – Rome from the Vatican
• Horace Vernet – La Barrière de Clichy
• David Wilkie – ''Reading the Will''

Births

• February 18 – Pierre Alexandre Schoenewerk, French sculptor
• February 28 – John Tenniel, English illustrator
• April 6 – Nadar, French photographer and caricaturist
• May 12 – Josef Mánes, Czech painter
• July 9 – John Wright Oakes, English landscape painter
• July 25 – Henry Doulton, English potter
• November 23 – Ludwig von Hagn, German painter
• December – Eugène Fromentin, French painter
• December 16 – George Scharf, English art critic and curator
• date unknown – John Frederick Herring, Jr., English sporting and equestrian painter
• *Fabio Borbottoni, Italian painter of vedute

Deaths

• January 29 – George III of the United Kingdom, patron of the arts and collector
• March 8 – Kitao Shigemasa, Japanese ukiyo-e artist from Edo
• March 9 – Hermanus Numan, Dutch artist, art theorist, and publisher
• March 11 – Benjamin West, American-born English painter
• March 27 – Gerhard von Kügelgen, German painter of portraits and history paintings
• May 17 – Vincenzo Brenna, Italian painter and house architect of Paul I of Russia
• May 26 – Antonio Longo, Italian priest and painter
• September 15 – Okada Beisanjin, Japanese painter
• October 10 – Uragami Gyokudō, Japanese musician, painter, poet and calligrapher date unknown
• * Pietro Bonato, Italian painter and engraver
• * Jean Simeon Rousseau de la Rottiere, French decorative painter
• * Quirinus van Amelsfoort, Dutch allegorical, historical and portrait painter