1889 in art
The year 1889 in art involved some significant events.
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