1889 in art

Events

• February 2 – Sixth annual exhibition of Les XX opens in Brussels, including the first important display of Paul Gauguin's work.
• May 6 – October 31 – Exposition Universelle in Paris, with the Eiffel Tower as its entrance arch.
• May 8 – Van Gogh moves from Arles to the Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.
• June – The Volpini Exhibition: Exposition de peintures du Groupe impressioniste et synthétiste, faite dans le local de M. Volpini au Champ-de-Mars organised by Paul Gauguin and Émile Schuffenecker at the Café des Arts in Paris; other exhibitors include Émile Bernard and Charles Laval.
• July 15 – The Scottish National Portrait Gallery opens in Edinburgh in premises designed by Rowand Anderson, the first in the world to be purpose-built as a portrait gallery.
• July 23 – Marie Triepcke marries fellow-artist Peder Severin Krøyer in Augsburg.
• August 17 – The 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition opens in Melbourne, Australia.
• Edvard Munch stages his first one-man exhibition and wins a state scholarship to study in Paris.
• Alfred Sisley settles at Moret-sur-Loing.
• The Skulpturensammlung moves into the Albertinum in Dresden.
• The Imperial Museum of Nara is established in Japan.

  Works

• Jean Béraud - La Pâtisserie Gloppe
• Pierre Bonnard – Self-portrait '
• William-Adolphe Bouguereau
• * Première rêverie
• * The Shepherdess
• Antoine Bourdelle – Adam
• Henry Jamyn Brooks – Private View of the Old Masters Exhibition, Royal Academy, 1888
• Milly Childers –
• Henry de Groux – Christ aux Outrages
• Thomas Eakins – The Agnew Clinic
• Paul Gustav Fischer – The Royal Theatre Ballet School, Copenhagen
• Stanhope Forbes – '
• Henry Justice Ford – Illustrations to Andrew Lang's The Blue Fairy Book
• Louis Édouard Fournier – The Funeral of Shelley
• Paul Gauguin
• * The Green Christ and The Yellow Christ
• * Portrait of Jacob Meijer de Haan
• * Self-Portrait with Halo and Snake
• * The Flageolet Player on the Cliff
• Alfred Gilbert – Marble bust of Queen Victoria
• J. W. Godward
• * Grecian Reverie
• * His Birthday Gift
• * Ianthe
• * Waiting For An Answer
• Félix Resurrección Hidalgo – La Parisienne
• Jozef Israëls – A Son of the Ancient Race
• Juan Luna – Hymen o Hymenee
• Frederick McCubbin – Down on His Luck
• Arturo Michelena – La Joven Madre
• Claude Monet – The Valley of the Creuse, Sunset
• Edvard Munch
• * Inger on the Beach, Summer Night
• * Music on Karl Johan Street
• * Spring
• Blanche Nevin – Peter Muhlenberg
• Eilif Peterssen – Salmon Fishermen at Nesøya
• Ilya Repin – Portrait of Baroness Varvara Ivanovna Ikskul von Hildenbandt
• Auguste Rodin – The Burghers of Calais
• John Singer Sargent
• * Gabriel Fauré
• * Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth
• * Lady Fishing - Mrs Ormond
• * An Out-of-Doors Study
• Henryk Siemiradzki – Phryne at the Poseidonia in Eleusis
• Arthur Streeton – Golden Summer, Eaglemont
• Franz Stuck – The Guardian of Paradise
• Vincent van Gogh
• * Hospital in Arles series
• ** Garden of the Hospital in Arles
• ** Ward in the Hospital in Arles
• ** Portrait of Doctor Félix Rey
• * Self-portrait and Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear
• * Self-Portrait as a sick person
• * Bedroom in Arles
• * View of Arles, Flowering Orchards and View of Arles with Trees in Blossom
• * Butterflies series
• * Irises
• * Rain
• * The Ravine of the Peyroulets
• * A Road at Saint-Remy with Female Figure
• * The Starry Night
• * Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy series
• ** Trees and Undergrowth series
• * Portrait of Trabuc, an Attendant at Saint-Paul Hospital and Portrait of Madame Trabuc
• * Two Crabs
• * Wheat Fields series
• ** Wheat Field, Sunrise
• ** Wheat Field with Cypresses
• ** Peasant Woman Binding Sheaves
• Carl von Marr – The Flagellants
• Fritz von Uhde – Heathland princess
• Édouard Vuillard – Self-portrait
• John Quincy Adams Ward – Bust of Alexander Lyman Holley

  Births

• January 19 – Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Swiss geometric abstract painter, sculptor and dancer
• January 21 – Hermann Glöckner, German Constructivist painter and sculptor
• April 15 – Thomas Hart Benton, American painter and muralist
• May 11 – Paul Nash, English painter
• June 13 – Gao Qifeng, Chinese painter
• July 31 – Júlíana Sveinsdóttir, Icelandic painter and textile artist
• August 13 – C. R. W. Nevinson, English war artist
• August 20 – David Kakabadze, Georgian artist
• September 28 – Seán Keating, Irish romantic-realist painter
• October 10 – Han van Meegeren, Dutch painter and art forger
• October 17 – Karl Völker, German painter and architect
• October 29 – Edward Wadsworth, English painter
• November 1 – Hannah Höch, German Dada photomontage artist
• November 10 – Clive Stephen, Australian sculptor

  Deaths

• January 23 – Alexandre Cabanel, painter
• February 5 – James Smetham, pre-Raphaelite painter
• February 24 – Philip Henry Delamotte, photographer and illustrator
• May 23 – John O'Connor, painter
• October 6 – Jules Dupré, painter
• December 27 – Eduard Bendemann, painter
• date unknown – Jules Tavernier, French painter