1838 in art

Events

• April 8 – The British National Gallery first opens to the public in the building purpose-designed for it by William Wilkins in Trafalgar Square, London.
• May 7 – The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1838 opens at the National Gallery in London
• August 31 – Scottish-born scene painter David Roberts sets sail for Egypt, with the encouragement of J. M. W. Turner, to produce a series of drawings of the region for use as the basis for paintings and chromolithographs.

Works

• Théodore Chassériau – Venus Anadyomene
• Edward William Cooke – Mont Saint Michel, Normandy
• Asher B. Durand – Dance on the Battery in the Presence of Peter Stuyvesant
• Eugène Delacroix
• * Cleopatra and the Peasant
• *Convulsionists of Tangiers
• *Portrait of Frédéric Chopin and George Sand
• * The Death of Ophelia
• Nicolas Gosse – The Congress of Erfurt
• George Hayter – Queen Victoria Enthroned in the House of Lords
• Johann Peter Krafft – The Battle of Aspern-Essling
• John Linnell – Portrait of Sir Robert Peel
• Daniel Maclise – Merry Christmas in the Baron's Hall
• Louis Meijer – Self-portrait
• David Roberts – Chapel of Ferdinand and Isabella, Granada
• Thomas Sully – Portrait of Queen Victoria
• J.M.W. Turner
• * Fishing Boats with Hucksters Bargaining for Fish
• * Phryne Going to the Public Baths as Venus
• Horace Vernet
• * The Siege of Constantine
• * Napoleon at the Tuileries
• David Wilkie
• * The Bride at her Toilet
• * The First Council of Queen Victoria
• William Wyon – young profile head of Queen Victoria on coins of the pound sterling

Births

• March 14 – Hermann Kern, painter
• March 28 – Jean-Paul Laurens, painter and sculptor
• May 15 – Nicolae Grigorescu, painter
• June 11 – Mariano Fortuny, painter
• June 24 – Jan Matejko, painter
• September 18 – Anton Mauve, painter
• November 18 – William Keith, painter
• November 28 – Alexander Opekushin, sculptor
• December 9 – Gerard Bilders, painter
• December 25 – Raffaello Sernesi, painter and medallist
• December 31 – Jules Dalou, sculptor

Deaths

• January 5 – Maria Cosway, Italian-English painter, engraver, composer, musician, and society hostess
• January 8 – Josef Grassi, Austrian painter especially of portraits
• February 28 – Charles Thévenin, neoclassical French painter, known for heroic scenes
• March 2 – Benjamin Barker, landscape painter
• March 29 – Carlo Lasinio, Italian engraver
• May 10 – José Aparicio, Spanish painter of the Neoclassic period
• June 4 – Claude Ramey, sculptor
• August 5 – Anton Schimser, Polish sculptor of Austrian origin
• September 5 – Charles Percier, architect and designer
• November 9 – Friedrich Carl Gröger, north-German portrait painter and lithographer
• November 29 – Erik Gustaf Göthe, Swedish sculptor date unknown – John O'Keeffe, Irish portrait and figure painter