1897 in art

List of years in art (table)
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Events

• 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.
• A Book of Fifty Drawings by Aubrey Beardsley is published.
• Bernard Berenson publishes Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance.

Works

Paul Gauguin, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (oil on canvas), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, United States

Ogata Gekkō, Ryu sho ten, from his Views of Mount Fuji

See also: Category:1897 sculptures

• 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 17 – Charles Ragland Bunnell, American painter (died 1968)
• January 21 – René Iché, French sculptor (died 1954)
• March 16 – Antonio Donghi, Italian painter (died 1963)
• 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)

Deaths

• February 7 – Charles Edward Boutibonne, French Classicist painter (born 1816)
• March 21 – Ādams Alksnis, Latvian painter (born 1864)
• June 7 – Victor Mottez, French fresco and portrait painter (born 1809)
• October 5 – Sir John Gilbert, painter (born 1817)
• November 18 – Henry Doulton, potter (born 1820)
• date unknown – Owon (Jang Seung-eop), Korean painter (born 1843)