# 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
** In the Loge
** 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
* August Friedrich Schenck - Anguish
* 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)