Events

January 20 – Death of the neo-classical architect Sir John Soane gives effect to the creation of his London house as Sir John Soane's Museum.
June 1 – The Government-funded Normal School of Design, predecessor of the Royal College of Art, begins classes at Somerset House in London.^[1]
June 10 – Galerie des Batailles at the Palace of Versailles in France, designed by Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine with Frédéric Nepveu for the display of sculptures and historical paintings, is opened.
July – Edward Lear leaves Knowsley Hall in England to travel to Rome.
Art Union of London founded.
Marie Louise Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun publishes the second volume of her memoirs.

Awards

January – Daniel Cottier, Scottish artist and designer (died 1891)
January 1 – Adolf Mosengel, German landscape painter (died 1885)
January 27 – Tomioka Tessai, Japanese painter and calligrapher in Meiji period (died 1924)
February 12 – Thomas Moran, English-born American landscape painter of the Hudson River School (died 1926)
March 27 – John MacWhirter, Scottish landscape painter (died 1911)
April 10 – Tranquillo Cremona, Italian painter (died 1878)
May 8 – Alphonse Legros, French painter and etcher (died 1911)
June 8 – Ivan Kramskoi, Russian painter and art critic (died 1887)
July 4 – Carolus-Duran, French painter (died 1917)
December 18 – Ernest Hoschedé, French businessman and collector of Impressionist paintings (died 1891)

January 11 – Baron François Gérard, French painter (born 1770)
January 29 – Andrew Plimer, British artist specialised in portrait miniatures (born 1763)^[2]
February 8 – Ernst Willem Jan Bagelaar, Dutch engraver (born 1775)^[3]
February 17 – Johann Baptist von Lampi the Younger, Austrian portrait painter (born 1775)^[4]
February 27 – Françoise-Jeanne Ridderbosch, Belgian painter and engraver (born 1754)
March 8 – Domingos Sequeira, Portuguese painter (born 1768)
March 16 – François-Xavier Fabre, French painter of historical subjects (born 1766)
March 31 – John Constable, English landscape painter (born 1776)
May 18 – Marguerite Gérard, French painter and etcher (born 1761)
August – Henry Behnes, English sculptor (born 1800
August 9 – Xavier Sigalon, French painter (born 1787)
September 18 – Pietro Fontana, Italian engraver (born 1762)
December 28 – Boris Orlovsky, Russian sculptor (born 1793)
date unknown
- Juliane Wilhelmine Bause, German landscape etcher (born 1768)
- Thomas Richmond, English miniature-painter (born 1771)
- Charles Henry Schwanfelder, English animal, landscape and portrait painter (born 1774)
- Yi Jaegwan, Korean genre works painter in the late Joseon period (born 1783)