1881 in art

Events from the year 1881 in art.

EventsEdit

April – Sixth Impressionist exhibition in Paris, at Nadar's studio.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
August 31 – English painters Thomas Cooper Gotch and Caroline Burland Yates marry at Newlyn.
The Société des Artistes Français is established, with William-Adolphe Bouguereau as its first president.
Vincent van Gogh returns from study in Brussels to his parents' home in Etten (Netherlands) where he produces a number of early works, including the start of his series of peasant character studies and still lifes (including Still Life with Straw Hat).

William Powell Frith – A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881 (1883)

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Renoir - Luncheon of the Boating Party

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January 4 – Wilhelm Lehmbruck, German sculptor (suicide 1919)
January 5 – Pablo Gargallo, Aragonese painter and sculptor (died 1934)
February 4 – Fernand Léger, French painter (died 1955)
February 11
- Carlo Carrà, Italian painter (died 1966)
- Robert Borlase Smart, English painter and critic (died 1947)
April 10 – William John Leech, Irish painter (died 1968)
April 16 – Fortunino Matania, Italian-born illustrator and war artist (died 1963)
July 12 – Natalia Goncharova, Russian theatrical costume and set designer, painter and illustrator (died 1962)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
July 28 – Léon Spilliaert, Belgian symbolist painter and graphic artist (died 1946)
July 29 – Jessie Traill, Australian printmaker (died 1967)
August 4 – Wenzel Hablik, Bohemian painter, graphic artist, designer (died 1934)
October 4 - René Gimpel, French artbdealer (died 1945)
October 25 – Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter, draughtsman and sculptor (died 1973)
December 8 – Albert Gleizes, French painter (died 1953)
December 31 – Max Pechstein, German painter (died 1955)
uncertain
- William Conor, Irish painter (died 1968)
- Nazmi Ziya Güran, Turkish painter (died 1937)

January 3 – Anna McNeill Whistler, "Whistler's Mother" (born 1804)
January 24 – James Collinson, English Pre-Raphaelite painter (born 1825)
February 9 – Jacques-Édouard Gatteaux, French sculptor and medal engraver (born 1788)
March 11 – Thomas Brigstocke, Welsh portrait painter (born 1809)
May 24 – Samuel Palmer, English painter, etcher and lithographer (born 1805)
July 25 – Edward Charles Williams, English landscape painter (born 1807)
December 6 – Thomas Skinner, English etcher (poisoned; born 1819)
December 13 – John Quidor, American painter (born 1801)
December 14 – Berndt Godenhjelm, Finnish painter (born 1799)
December 21 - Francesco Hayez, Italian historical, portrait and political painter (born 1791)