1840 in art

• 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,{{cite book|first=H. W.|last=Hill|title=The Fight for the Penny Post|location=London|publisher=Warne|year=1940|pages=75–79}}{{cite web|url=http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1840-1860|title=Icons, a portrait of England 1840–1860|accessdate=2007-09-13|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070817165102/http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1840-1860|archivedate=17 August 2007|url-status=dead}} together with Mulready stationery. The stamp becomes valid for postage from May 6.{{cite book|first=Richard|last=Blake|title=The Book of Postal Dates, 1635–1985|location=Caterham|publisher=Marden|page=10}}
• September 30 – Foundation of Nelson's Column laid in London,{{cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006}} Trafalgar Square being laid out and paved around it during the year.{{cite book|last=Palmer|first=Alan|last2=Palmer |first2=Veronica|year=1992|title=The Chronology of British History|publisher=Century Ltd|location=London|pages=263–264|isbn=0-7126-5616-2}}

File:Génie de la Liberté 973.jpg]]

• 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)
• Francis Grant – Queen Victoria Riding Out
• Horatio Greenough – George Washington (statue, Washington, D.C.)
• Benjamin Robert Haydon – The Duke of Wellington Describing the Field of Waterloo to George IV
• Samuel Jackson – View of the Avon at Hotwells
• Edwin Landseer – Laying Down The Law, or Trial by Jury (Chatsworth House, England)
• William Linnell -Smugglerius{{cite web |url=https://www.felicecalchi.com/smugglerius/?lang=en

|first=Andrea |last=Felice |date=8 Dec 2012

|publisher=FeliceCalchi Plaster Casts & Sculptures

|title=The True Story of Smugglerius |access-date=26 August 2024}}

• 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)
• Andrew Morton – The Duke of Wellington with Colonel Gurwood at Apsley House
• 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)
• Venice, the Bridge of Sighs
• Neapolitan Fisher Girls Surprised Bathing by Moonlight
• Horace Vernet
• Judah and Tamar
• The Siege of Antwerp
• David Wilkie – Portrait of Abdülmecid I
• Franz Xaver Winterhalter – Portrait of Leopold I of Belgium

• 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.

• 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){{cite web |title=Claude Monet {{!}} Biography, Art, Water Lilies, Haystacks, Impression: Sunrise, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Claude-Monet |website=www.britannica.com |access-date=7 June 2022 |language=en}}
• 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)

• 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){{cite book|author=Oxford University Press|title=Benezit Dictionary of British Graphic Artists and Illustrators|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=05C02RhJZCkC&pg=PA536|date=21 June 2012|publisher=OUP USA|isbn=978-0-19-992305-2|pages=536}}
• 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)

{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1840 In Art}}

Category:Years of the 19th century in art

Category:1840s in art