# 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.

## Publications

* A Book of Fifty Drawings by Aubrey Beardsley is published.
* Vingt Dessins 1861–1896, a collection of prints by Edgar Degas.
* 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)