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 – '
• Philip Burne-Jones – The Vampire
• Georges Clairin – '
• Herbert James Draper – '
• 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
• '
• Edvard Munch – The Kiss
• Camille Pissarro
• '
• '
• '
• Maurice Prendergast – Summer Visitors
• Henri Rousseau – The Sleeping Gypsy
• John Singer Sargent – Mr. and Mrs. I. N. Phelps Stokes
• Rudolf Siemering – Washington Monument, Philadelphia
• Henryk Siemiradzki – '
• Douglas Tilden – Admission Day Monument, San Francisco
• Vasily Vereshchagin – '
• Arthur Wardle – The Totteridge XI
• Painters under the direction of Jan Styka – Transylvania Panorama (Lwów)