1855 in art
Events from the year 1855 in art.
Events
- May 7 – Royal Academy Exhibition of 1855 opens in London
- July 3 – John Everett Millais and Effie Gray marry.
- May 15–November 15 – Exposition Universelle in Paris, including The Salon of 1855 for art. Gustave Courbet, having had several of his paintings rejected, including the monumental The Painter's Studio, exhibits in a temporary Pavillon du Réalisme adjacent to the official show, creating both public outrage and artistic admiration. The official exhibition includes a retrospective of the paintings of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres.
- William Bell Scott begins painting murals of Northumbrian history at Wallington Hall.
- The Bavarian National Museum is founded by King Maximilian II of Bavaria.
Awards
Works
- Rosa Bonheur – The Horse Fair
- Joanna Mary Boyce – Elgiva
- Ford Madox Brown – The Last of England
- William Shakespeare Burton – The Wounded Cavalier
- Philip Hermogenes Calderon – Lord, Thy Will Be Done
- Théodore Chassériau
- * The Defence of the Gauls by Vercingetorix
- * Macbeth and the Three Witches
- Gustave Courbet – The Artist's Studio (L‘Atelier du Peintre): A Real Allegory of a Seven Year Phase in my Artistic and Moral Life
- Edgar Degas – Self-portrait
- Henry Brueckner - The Marriage of Pocahontas
- William Powell Frith – At the Opera
- Johan Fredrik Höckert – Gudstjänst i Lövmokks fjällkapell
- Paul Huet – The Flood of Saint-Cloud
- George Inness – The Lackawanna Valley
- Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann – Double portrait of the Brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
- Eugène Lami – The Battle of the Alma
- Frederic Leighton – Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna
- John Jabez Edwin Mayall – Sergeant Dawson and his Daughter
- John Everett Millais – The Rescue
- Élias Robert with Georges Diebolt – France crowning Art and Industry
- José Rodrigues – O Pobre Rabequista
- Ary Scheffer
- * Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta Appraised by Dante and Virgil
- * Portrait of Charles Dickens
- Rebecca Solomon – The Story of Balaclava, wherein he spoke of the most disastrous chances
- January Suchodolski – The Death of Cyprian Godebski at Raszyn
- Carl Wahlbom – Death of King Gustav II Adolf at the Battle of Lützen
- Franz Xaver Winterhalter – ''The Empress Eugénie Surrounded by her Ladies in Waiting''
Births
- January 4 – Jean Baptiste Guth, French watercolor portraitist
- January 31 – Karl Uchermann, Norwegian canine painter
- February 11 – Ellen Day Hale, American painter and printmaker
- February 25 – Frederick McCubbin, Australian painter of the Heidelberg School
- March 22 – Dorothy Tennant, English painter
- May 1 – Cecilia Beaux, American portrait painter
- July 30 – James E. Kelly, American sculptor and illustrator
- August 30 – Evelyn De Morgan, English painter
- September 8 – William Friese-Greene, English photographer and cinematographer
- December 25 – Jules Monge, French painter
- Willis E. Davis, American landscape painter
- William John Wainwright, English painter
Deaths
- January 19 – Jean-Baptiste Paulin Guérin, French painter
- March 3 – Copley Fielding, painter
- March 20 – Eugénie Charen, French painter
- April 18 – Jean-Baptiste Isabey, painter
- June 9 – Piotr Michałowski, Polish portrait painter
- June 10 – Jacques-Jean Barre, French engraver and designer of French medals, the Great Seal of France, bank notes and postage stamps
- June 24 – Edward Williams, landscape painter
- August 18 – Amasa Hewins – American portrait, genre, and landscape painter
- September 16 – Benedetto Pistrucci, engraver
- October 21 – Henry Pierce Bone, English enamel painter
- November 3 – François Rude, sculptor date unknown
- * Dimitrije Avramović, Serbian painter.
- * Angelus de Baets, Belgian painter of portraits and architectural subjects
- * Giovanni Paolo Lasinio, Italian engraver
- * Johann Georg Primavesi, German etcher and painter, primarily of landscapes
- * Wendela Gustafva Sparre, Swedish textile artist and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Art
- * Maxim Vorobiev, Russian Romantic landscape painter