1878 in art

Events from the year 1878 in art.

Events

 * 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 ("The child fishers")
 * Les Foins ("Haymaking")
 * Reinhold Begas – Mercury and Psyche (marble, Berlin, Germany)
 * Emmanuel Benner – Lakeside Dwelling 
 * Gustave Caillebotte
 * Bather about to dive
 * The Canoes (Museum of Fine Arts of Rennes)
 * 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 – 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 (Musée d'Orsay, Paris)
 * The Plum
 * The Rue Mosnier with Flags
 * Jan Matejko – Battle of Grunwald
 * John Everett Millais
 * A Jersey Lily
 * The Two Princes Edward and Richard in the Tower, 1483
 * Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Madame Georges Charpentier and her children
 * Ilya Repin – Self-portrait
 * Briton Rivière – Persepolis
 * Auguste Rodin – The Walking Man (bronze)
 * Félicien Rops – Pornocrates
 * Dante Gabriel Rossetti
 * The Blessed Damozel (probable completion date)
 * A Vision of Fiammetta
 * Alfred Sisley – Snow at Louveciennes (Musée d'Orsay, Paris)
 * 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? (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool)

Births

 * 4 January – Augustus John, Welsh painter (died 1961)
 * 16 January – Karl Isakson, Swedish painter (died 1922)
 * 14 February – Bohumil Kafka, Bohemian Czech sculptor (died 1942)
 * 27 February – Max Silberberg, German Jewish industrialist and art collector (killed after 1942)
 * 12 March – Gerda Höglund, Swedish religious painter (died 1973)
 * 27 March – Kathleen Bruce (later Lady Scott), English sculptor (died 1947)
 * 28 March – Abraham Walkowitz, American Modernist painter (died 1965)
 * 1 April – Alfred Flechtheim, German art dealer, collector and publisher (died 1937)
 * 2 April – Émilie Charmy, French artist (died 1974)
 * 24 April – Jean Crotti, French painter (died 1958)
 * 26 May – Spencer Gore, English painter (died 1914)
 * 9 August – Eileen Gray, Irish furniture designer and architect (died 1976)
 * 7 October – Feliu Elias, Spanish caricaturist and painter (died 1948)
 * 8 October – Alfred Munnings, English equine painter (died 1959)
 * 14 November – Julie Manet, French painter and art collector (died 1966)
 * 23 November – Frank Pick, English transport administrator and patron of art and design (died 1941)
 * 24 November – Norman Wilkinson, English marine artist (died 1971)
 * 27 November – William Orpen, Irish portrait painter (died 1931)

Deaths

 * January 26 – Théophile Schuler, French painter and illustrator (born 1821)
 * February – Tito Angelini, Italian sculptor (born 1806)
 * February 9 – Nicolas Gosse, French historical painter (born 1787)
 * February 19
 * George Paul Chalmers, Scottish painter (born 1833; died as the result of a street attack)
 * Charles-François Daubigny, French painter (born 1817)
 * February 26 – Alexandre Antigna, French painter (born 1817)
 * March 3 – Joseph Bonomi the Younger, English sculptor, artist, Egyptologist and museum curator (born 1796)
 * April 14 – Ludovic Piette, French impressionist painter (born 1826)
 * April 23 – Jaroslav Čermák, Czech historical painter (born 1831)
 * May 25 – Antoine Laurent Dantan, French academic sculptor (born 1798)
 * June 10 – Tranquillo Cremona, Italian painter (born 1837)
 * June 16 – Kikuchi Yōsai, Japanese painter most famous for his monochrome portraits of historical figures (born 1788)
 * August 21 – Conrad Martens, English-born landscape painter (born 1801)
 * October 5 – Francis Grant, Scottish painter (born 1803)
 * November 11 – Robert Havell, Jr., English principal engraver of Audubon's The Birds of America (born 1793)
 * November 16 – Đura Jakšić, Serbian painter and poet (born 1832)
 * December 19 – Joseph Nash, English watercolour painter and lithographer (born 1809)
 * date unknown – Amédée Faure, French portrait painter (born 1801)