1840 in art

Events from the year 1840 in art.

Events

 * March 4 – Alexander S. Wolcott and John Johnson open their "Daguerreian Parlor" on Broadway (Manhattan), the world's first commercial photography portrait studio.
 * May 1 – Issue in the United Kingdom of the Penny Black, the world's first postage stamp, depicting the head of Queen Victoria engraved by Charles Heath and his son Frederick based on a sketch provided by Henry Corbould itself based on a cameo portrait by William Wyon, together with Mulready stationery. The stamp becomes valid for postage from May 6.
 * September 30 – Foundation of Nelson's Column laid in London, Trafalgar Square being laid out and paved around it during the year.

Works

 * Jean-Antoine Alavoine and Joseph-Louis Duc – July Column, Place de la Bastille, Paris; incorporating Auguste Dumont's Génie de la Liberté and bas-reliefs by Antoine-Louis Barye and others
 * Thomas Jones Barker – The Bride of Death
 * François Bouchot – Napoleon Bonaparte in the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire in Saint-Cloud
 * John Gadsby Chapman -
 *  The Baptism of Pocahontas
 * Théodore Chassériau
 * Andromeda Chained to the Rock by the Nereids
 * Diana Surprised by Actaeon
 * Portrait of the Reverend Father Dominique Lacordaire, of the Order of the Predicant Friars
 * Francis Danby – The Deluge
 * Eugène Delacroix (Musée du Louvre, Paris)
 * Entry of the Crusaders in Constantinople
 * The Shipwreck of Don Juan
 * William Etty – The Wrestlers (approximate date)
 * Horatio Greenough – George Washington (statue, Washington, D.C.)
 * Edwin Landseer – Laying Down The Law, or Trial by Jury (Chatsworth House, England)
 * William Linnell -Smugglerius
 * Robert Scott Lauder – David Roberts Esq. in the dress he wore in Palestine
 * John Martin – The Eve of the Deluge (British Royal Collection) and The Assuaging of the Waters (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco)
 * John Christian Schetky – Loss of the Royal George
 * Armand Toussaint – Persephone (sculpture) (approx. date)
 * J. M. W. Turner – The Slave Ship, or Slavers throwing overboard the Dead and Dying — Typhoon coming on (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Awards

 * Grand Prix de Rome, painting:
 * Grand Prix de Rome, sculpture:
 * Grand Prix de Rome, architecture: Théodore Ballu.
 * Grand Prix de Rome, music: F.E.V. Bazin.

Births

 * February 7 – Ida Göthilda Nilsson, Swedish sculptor (died 1920)
 * April 22 – Odilon Redon, French painter and graphic artist (died 1916)
 * April 28 – Caroline Shawk Brooks, American sculptor (died 1913)
 * May 2 – Philippe Solari, Provençal sculptor (died 1906)
 * May 28 – Hans Makart, Austrian painter and designer (died 1884)
 * July 8 – Heinrich von Angeli, Austrian society portrait painter (died 1925)
 * August 14 – Briton Rivière, English painter (died 1920)
 * September 27 – Thomas Nast, German American cartoonist (died 1902)
 * November 12 – Auguste Rodin, French sculptor (died 1917)
 * November 14 – Claude Monet, French Impressionist painter (died 1926)
 * December 1 – Marie Bracquemond, née Quivoron, French Impressionist painter (died 1916)
 * probable – Timothy H. O'Sullivan, Irish American photographer of the American Civil War (died 1882)

Deaths

 * January 16 – František Tkadlík, Czech painter (born 1786)
 * February 9 – Luke Clennell, English engraver and painter (born 1781)
 * February 27 – Henry Wyatt, English portrait painter (born 1794)
 * March 19 – Thomas Daniell, landscape painter (born 1749)
 * March 30 – Beau Brummell, leader of fashion (born 1778)
 * April 7 – William Heath, English satirical engraver (born 1794)
 * April 10 – Alexander Nasmyth, painter (born 1758)
 * May 5 – Robert Trewick Bone English painter of sacred, classical and genre scenes (born 1790)
 * May 7 – Caspar David Friedrich, painter (born 1774)
 * May 11 – Eduard Joseph d'Alton, German engraver and naturalist (born 1772)
 * June 20 – Pierre-Joseph Redouté, flower painter (born 1759)
 * July 6 – Johann Heinrich Ramberg, German painter and printmaker (born 1763)
 * July 23 – Carl Blechen, German painter, specializing in fantastic landscapes with demons and grotesque figures (born 1798)
 * August 30 - Jonas Damelis, Lithuanian neoclassicist painter (born 1780)
 * October 28 – Reverend John Thomson, minister of Duddingston Kirk near Edinburgh, and landscape painter (born 1778)
 * November 7 – Pierre Petitot, French sculptor (born 1760)
 * December 11 – Franz Bauer, Austrian microscopist and botanical artist (born 1758)
 * date unknown
 * Moritz Fuerst, American engraver and medallist (born 1782)
 * Luigi Rados, Italian engraver (born 1773)