1878 in art

Events

• 6 May – The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1878 opens at Burlington House in London
• November 25 – 26 – James McNeill Whistler's libel case against English art critic John Ruskin over a scathing 1877 review of Whistler's painting Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket is heard in the High Court of Justice in London. Whistler wins a farthing in nominal damages and only half of the costs, leading to his bankruptcy, and alienates patrons.
• French critic Théodore Duret publishes the pamphlet Les Peintres impressionistes.
• Czech painter Karel Klíč perfects the photogravure process.

Works

• Ivan Aivazovsky – Sea View by Moonlight
• Jules Bastien-Lepage
• * Les Enfants Pecheurs
• * Les Foins
• Reinhold Begas – Mercury and Psyche
• Emmanuel Benner – Lakeside Dwelling
• Gustave Caillebotte
• * Bather about to dive
• * The Canoes
• * Fisherman on the bank of the Yerres
• * The Orange Trees
• * Rue Halévy: view from the sixth floor
• * View of rooftops, effect of snow
• Mary Cassatt
• * In the Loge
• * Portrait of the Artist
• Eduard Charlemont – The Moorish Chief
• William Merritt Chase
• * A Fishmarket in Venice
• * The Mandolin Player
• Stanisław Chlebowski – Sultan Bayezid prisoned by Timur
• James Collinson – The Holy Family
• Evelyn De Morgan – Night and Sleep
• Maurycy Gottlieb – Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur
• Jean-Jacques Henner
• * The Magdalene
• * Portrait of M. Hayem
• Ivan Kramskoi – Portrait of the Artist Alexander Litovchenko
• Robert Walker Macbeth – Sedge Cutting in Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire, early morning
• Édouard Manet
• * At the Café
• * Blonde Woman with Bare Breasts
• * The Plum
• * The Rue Mosnier with Flags
• Jan Matejko – Battle of Grunwald
• John Everett Millais
• * A Jersey Lily
• * The Princes in the Tower
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Madame Georges Charpentier and her children
• Ilya Repin – Self-portrait
• Briton Rivière – Persepolis
• Auguste Rodin – The Walking Man
• Félicien Rops – Pornocrates
• Dante Gabriel Rossetti
• * The Blessed Damozel
• * A Vision of Fiammetta
• August Friedrich Schenck - Anguish
• Alfred Sisley – Snow at Louveciennes
• Elizabeth Thompson – Listed for the Connaught Rangers
• James Tissot
• * Kathleen Newton In An Armchair
• * Seaside
• Viktor Vasnetsov – The Knight at the Crossroads
• Hubert von Herkomer – Eventide: A Scene in the Westminster Union
• William Frederick Yeames – ''And When Did You Last See Your Father?''

Births

• 4 January – Augustus John, Welsh painter
• 16 January – Karl Isakson, Swedish painter
• 14 February – Bohumil Kafka, Bohemian Czech sculptor
• 27 February – Max Silberberg, German Jewish industrialist and art collector
• 12 March – Gerda Höglund, Swedish religious painter
• 27 March – Kathleen Bruce, English sculptor
• 28 March – Abraham Walkowitz, American Modernist painter
• 1 April – Alfred Flechtheim, German art dealer, collector and publisher
• 2 April – Émilie Charmy, French artist
• 24 April – Jean Crotti, French painter
• 26 May – Spencer Gore, English painter
• 9 August – Eileen Gray, Irish furniture designer and architect
• 7 October – Feliu Elias, Spanish caricaturist and painter
• 8 October – Alfred Munnings, English equine painter
• 14 November – Julie Manet, French painter and art collector
• 23 November – Frank Pick, English transport administrator and patron of art and design
• 24 November – Norman Wilkinson, English marine artist
• 27 November – William Orpen, Irish portrait painter

Deaths

• January 26 – Théophile Schuler, French painter and illustrator
• February – Tito Angelini, Italian sculptor
• February 9 – Nicolas Gosse, French historical painter
• February 19
• * George Paul Chalmers, Scottish painter
• * Charles-François Daubigny, French painter
• February 26 – Alexandre Antigna, French painter
• March 3 – Joseph Bonomi the Younger, English sculptor, artist, Egyptologist and museum curator
• April 14 – Ludovic Piette, French impressionist painter
• April 23 – Jaroslav Čermák, Czech historical painter
• May 25 – Antoine Laurent Dantan, French academic sculptor
• June 10 – Tranquillo Cremona, Italian painter
• June 16 – Kikuchi Yōsai, Japanese painter most famous for his monochrome portraits of historical figures
• August 21 – Conrad Martens, English-born landscape painter
• October 5 – Francis Grant, Scottish painter
• November 11 – Robert Havell, Jr., English principal engraver of Audubon's The Birds of America
• November 16 – Đura Jakšić, Serbian painter and poet
• December 19 – Joseph Nash, English watercolour painter and lithographer date unknown – Amédée Faure, French portrait painter