1897 in art

The year 1897 in art involved some significant events.

Events

 * February 18 – Conclusion of the Benin Expedition of 1897, leading to the Benin Bronzes being carried off to London.
 * April 3 – Vienna Secession founded by artists including Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Max Kurzweil. Secession hall designed by Olbrich.
 * May 1 – Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek art museum opened in Copenhagen.
 * May 27 – A Separate Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture (Wystawa osobna obrazów i rzeźb) is staged at Sukiennice Museum in Main Square, Kraków.
 * August 4 – The "Lady of Elche" Iberian sculpture (4th century BCE) is found at L'Alcúdia near Elche in Spain.
 * September – Edvard Munch stages a major retrospective in Christiania.
 * October 27 – First meeting of the Society of Polish Artists "Sztuka" in Kraków.
 * At Giverny, Claude Monet begins painting his Water Lilies series, which will continue until the end of his life.
 * Elbridge Ayer Burbank begins painting portraits of Native Americans in the United States from life.
 * Women photographers Zaida Ben-Yusuf and Gertrude Käsebier open portrait studios in New York City.
 * A Book of Fifty Drawings by Aubrey Beardsley is published.
 * Vingt Dessins 1861–1896, a collection of prints by Edgar Degas, is published.
 * Bernard Berenson publishes Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance.

Works



 * Edwin Austin Abbey – The Play Scene in Hamlet
 * Philip Burne-Jones – The Vampire
 * Georges Clairin – Sarah Bernhardt as the Queen in 'Ruy Blas'
 * Herbert James Draper – Pot Pourri
 * Roberto Ferruzzi – Madonnina
 * Akseli Gallen-Kallela – Lemminkäinen's Mother
 * Paul Gauguin – Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
 * Ogata Gekkō – Ryu sho ten (published 1898)
 * J. W. Godward – Dolce far Niente (first version)
 * Jean-Jacques Henner – Portrait of Mlle Fouquier
 * Jacek Malczewski – Vicious Circle
 * Claude Monet
 * Branch of the Seine near Giverny (Mist)
 * Morning on the Seine near Giverny
 * The Seine at Giverny
 * Edvard Munch – The Kiss
 * Camille Pissarro
 * Boulevard Montmartre
 * Boulevard Montmartre in Spring
 * Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning
 * Maurice Prendergast – Summer Visitors
 * Henri Rousseau – The Sleeping Gypsy
 * John Singer Sargent – Mr. and Mrs. I. N. Phelps Stokes
 * Henryk Siemiradzki – A Christian Dirce
 * Douglas Tilden – Admission Day Monument, San Francisco
 * Vasily Vereshchagin – Napoleon near Borodino
 * Arthur Wardle – The Totteridge XI
 * Painters under the direction of Jan Styka – Transylvania Panorama (Lwów)

Births

 * January 9 – Tyra Lundgren, Swedish painter, ceramist, glass and textile designer and writer on art (died 1979)
 * January 17 – Charles Ragland Bunnell, American painter (died 1968)
 * January 21 – René Iché, French sculptor (died 1954)
 * March 16 – Antonio Donghi, Italian painter (died 1963)
 * May 2 – Adolf Hyła, Polish painter and art teacher (died 1965)
 * May 21 – Nikola Avramov, Bulgarian painter (died 1945)
 * June 3 – Georg Mayer-Marton, Hungarian-born graphic artist (died 1960)
 * June 22 – Albert Renger-Patzsch, German photographer (died 1966)
 * June 26 – Victor Servranckx, Belgian painter (died 1965)
 * August 19 – Roman Vishniac, Russian American photographer (died 1990)
 * September 23 – Paul Delvaux, Belgian painter (died 1994)
 * October 27 – Lena Gurr, American painter and lithographer (died 1992)
 * November 5 – Hilda Vīka, Latvian painter (died 1963)

Deaths

 * February 7 – Charles Edward Boutibonne, French Classicist painter (born 1816)
 * February 9 – George Price Boyce, English Pre-Raphaelite watercolour landscape painter (born 1826)
 * March 21 – Ādams Alksnis, Latvian painter (born 1864)
 * May 20 – Jacques Émile Édouard Brandon, French artist (born 1831)
 * June 7 – Victor Mottez, French fresco and portrait painter (born 1809)
 * September 8 – James Milo Griffith, Welsh sculptor (born 1843)
 * September 20 – Louis Pierre Mouillard, French artist and aviation pioneer (born 1834)
 * October 5 – Sir John Gilbert, English painter (born 1817)
 * October 8 – Alexei Savrasov, Russian landscape painter (born 1830)
 * November 18 – Henry Doulton, English potter (born 1820)
 * November 29 – Félix Pissarro, French-born painter, TB (born 1874)
 * December 30 – Edward La Trobe Bateman, English-born Pre-Raphaelite watercolour painter, book illuminator, draughtsman and garden designer (born 1816)
 * date unknown – Jang Seung-eop ('Owon'), Korean painter (born 1843)