1887 in art

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The year 1887 in art involved some significant events.

Events

February (approx.) – Fourth annual exhibition of Les XX, at the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique in Brussels. Artists invited to show in addition to members of the group include Walter Sickert,^[1] Camille Pissarro, Berthe Morisot and Georges-Pierre Seurat.^[2] The major work shown is Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.^[3]
March 26 – June 8 – Third exhibition by the Société des Artistes Indépendants in Paris.
November 14 – Paul Gauguin returns to Paris from Martinique.
December (approx.) – Vincent van Gogh arranges an exhibition of paintings by himself, Émile Bernard, Louis Anquetin, and (probably) Toulouse-Lautrec in the Restaurant du Chalet, 43 Avenue de Clichy, Montmartre, Paris. Bernard and Anquetin sell their first painting; van Gogh exchanges work with Gauguin.^[4]
Vincent van Gogh begins his first Sunflowers series of paintings in Paris.
Walter Crane illustrates "The Architecture of Art" (included in his Claims of Decorative Art, printed later).
Charles Lang Freer's first Asian art purchase is a painted Japanese fan.
Sir John Everett Millais' painting Bubbles is acquired for advertising purposes by Pears soap.

January 3 – August Macke, German Expressionist painter (died 1914).
February 5 – Albert Paris Gütersloh, Austrian painter and writer (died 1973).
March 23 – Juan Gris, Spanish painter and sculptor (died 1927).
March 25 – Josef Čapek, Czech painter (died 1945).
April 29 – Stanley Cursiter, Scottish painter and curator (died 1976).
May – Jacob Steinhardt, German-born Israeli painter and woodcut artist (died 1968).
May 12 – Leo Michelson, Latvian-American painter and sculptor (died 1978).
May 21
- Barker Fairley, English-born Canadian painter, writer, and educator (died 1986).
- Paul Maze, French-born Post-Impressionist painter (died 1979).
May 30 – Alexander Archipenko, Ukrainian sculptor (died 1964).
June 20 – Kurt Schwitters, German Dadaist painter and writer (died 1948).

July 7 – Marc Chagall, Russian-Belarusian-French painter (died 1985).
July 28 – Marcel Duchamp, influential French artist (died 1968).
September 24 – Frank Newbould, English poster artist (died 1951).
October 6 – Le Corbusier, French architect and painter (died 1965).
October 9 – Manuel Ortiz de Zárate, Chilean painter (died 1946).
October 13 – Kate Lechmere, English painter associated with the Vorticists and milliner (died 1976).
November 1 – L. S. Lowry, English painter (died 1976).
November 15 – Georgia O'Keeffe, American painter (died 1986).

^ Baron, Wendy (2006). Sickert: paintings and drawings. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 586. ISBN 978-0-300-11129-3. Retrieved 2009-12-22.
^ Walther, Ingo F.; Suckle, Robert; Wundram, Manfred (2002). Masterpieces of Western Art. Vol. 1. Cologne: Taschen. p. 760. ISBN 978-3-8228-1825-1. Retrieved 2009-12-22.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Clement, Russell T.; Houzé, Annick (1999). Neo-impressionist painters. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 396. ISBN 978-0-313-30382-1. Retrieved 2009-12-22.
^ Letter 510, 15 July 1888. There are two short accounts of this exhibition, one based on information supplied by Seurat and the other written by Bernard. For the paintings exchanged, see Annet Tellegen, "Vincent en Gauguin. Schilderijenruil in Parijs", Museumjournaal 1966, pp. 42–44.