1885 in art

Events

• July 13 – New building for the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, designed by Pierre Cuypers, opens.
• August – First public display of works by Vincent van Gogh, in the windows of the art dealer Leurs at The Hague.
• "Glasgow Boys" first exhibit collectively, at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts.
• Aberdeen Art Gallery opens in Scotland.
• Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery opens in England.
• The Guildhall Art Gallery opens in the City of London.
• The E. B. Crocker Art Gallery is presented to the people of Sacramento, California.

Awards

• John Everett Millais is granted a baronetcy in the United Kingdom, the first artist to be honoured with a hereditary title.

Works

Thomas Eakins – The Swimming Hole

• Michael Ancher – Vil han klare pynten ("Will he Round the Point?")
• William-Adolphe Bouguereau – The Young Shepherdess
• Frank Bramley
  • Everyone His Own Tale
  • Primrose Day
• Albert Dubois-Pillet (some dates approximate)
  • Ankerplaats
  • Bouquet of Roses in a Vase
  • Landscape with a Lock
  • Still Life with Fish
  • View of Paris
  • Winter Landscape
• Thomas Eakins – The Swimming Hole
• Albert Edelfelt – Portrait of Louis Pasteur
• Henri Fantin-Latour – Around the Piano
• Stanhope Forbes – A Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach
• Jean-Léon Gérôme – The great bath of Brousse
• Ellen Day Hale – Self Portrait (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
• Juan Luna
  • Chula series
  • Odalisque
• Jan Matejko – Bohdan Khmelnytsky with Tuhaj Bej near Lviv
• John Everett Millais – The Ruling Passion
• Charles William Mitchell – Hypatia
• Claude Monet – The Cliffs at Etretat
• Walter Osborne – Feeding the Chickens
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Girl Braiding Her Hair (Suzanne Valadon)
• Ilya Repin – Ivan the Terrible And His Son Ivan, 16 November 1581 (Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow)
• Therese Schwartze – Three girls from the Amsterdam Orphanage
• Marie Spartali Stillman – Love's Messenger
• James Tissot
  • The Bridesmaid
  • The Shop Girl
• William Greene Turner – Oliver Perry Monument (bronze, Newport, Rhode Island)
• Vincent van Gogh
  • The Potato Eaters (April)
  • Cottages series
  • Old Church Tower at Nuenen series (continued)
  • Peasant Character Studies
  • Still life paintings (continuing)
  • Two Paintings of Amsterdam (October)
• Hubert von Herkomer – Hard Times
• John William Waterhouse – Saint Eulalia
• George Frederic Watts – Love and Life
• W. L. Wyllie
  • A Dying Giant
  • Storm and Sunshine: A Battle with the Elements

Births

• January 21 – Duncan Grant, Scottish painter (died 1978)
• February 18 – Henri Laurens, French sculptor (died 1954)
• February 24 – Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz ('Witkacy'), Polish painter, playwright and novelist (suicide 1939)
• March 31 – Pascin, Bulgarian-born painter and draftsman (suicide 1930)
• April 8 – Norman Clyde, American mountaineer, nature photographer and naturalist (died 1972)
• April 12 – Robert Delaunay, French painter (died 1941)
• May 12 – Mario Sironi, Italian painter (died 1961)
• June 27 – Arthur Lismer, English-born Canadian painter, member of the Group of Seven (died 1969)
• July 5 – André Lhote, French painter and sculptor (died 1962)
• July 11 – Roger de La Fresnaye, French cubist painter (died 1925)
• August 15 – Nancy Cox-McCormack, American portrait sculptor (died 1967)
• August 26 – Gwen Raverat, née Darwin, English wood engraver (died 1957)
• August 30 – Paul Gösch, German artist and architect (died 1940)
• October 15 – Jóhannes Sveinsson Kjarval, Icelandic painter (died 1972)
• October 21 – Jan Altink, Dutch painter (died 1971)
• November 14 – Sonia Delaunay, Ukrainian-French artist (died 1979)
• date unknown
  • Leonardo Dudreville, Italian painter (died 1975)
  • Branko Radulović, Serbian painter (died 1916)

Deaths

• January 20 – Joseph Niklaus Bütler, Swiss painter (born 1822)
• April 18 – Rudolf Eitelberger, art historian (born 1817)
• April 29 – Ernst Joachim Förster, painter (born 1800)
• June 13 – Carl Arnold Gonzenbach, Swiss painter (born 1806)
• July 23 - Pierre Alexandre Schoenewerk, French sculptor (born 1820)
• August 30 – Thomas Thornycroft, sculptor (born 1815)
• September 6 – Narcís Monturiol i Estarriol, Spanish artist and engineer (born 1819)
• September 23 – Carl Spitzweg, painter (born 1808)
• October 9 – John Bowes, art collector (born 1811)
• December 5 – Wilhelm Ripe, painter (born 1818)
• December 11 – James Fahey, painter (born 1804)
• date unknown – Girolamo Masini, sculptor (born 1840)