Events from the year 1878 in art.
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.
Czech painter Karel Klíč perfects the photogravure process.
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)
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
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 – The Two Princes Edward and Richard in the Tower, 1483
Ilya Repin – Self-portrait
Briton Rivière – Persepolis
Auguste Rodin – The Walking Man (bronze)
Félicien Rops – Pornocrates
Dante Gabriel Rossetti – 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)
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 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).
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, English portrait painter (died 1931)
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 23 – Jaroslav Čermák, 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 1781)
August 21 – Conrad Martens, landscape painter (born 1801)
October 5 – Francis Grant, painter (born 1803)
November 11 – Robert Havell, Jr., English principal engraver of Audubon's Birds of America (born 1793)
November 16 – Đura Jakšić, Serbian painter and poet (born 1832)
December 19 – Joseph Nash, watercolour painter and lithographer (born 1809)
date unknown - Amédée Fauré, portrait painter (born 1801)
1878 in art Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA