1885 in art

Events

• March 24 – Peter Carl Fabergé presents the first imperial Fabergé egg to Maria Feodorovna, wife of Alexander III of Russia, beginning an Easter tradition that continues until 1917.
• May 20 – A letter, "A Woman's Plea", published in The Times of London protests against the use of nude models in art. Signed "British Matron" it is in fact written by painter and senior Royal Academician John Callcott Horsley.
• June – Paul Gauguin returns to Paris from Copenhagen where he has been unsuccessful in reconciling with his wife.
• 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

• June 26 – John Everett Millais granted a baronetcy in the United Kingdom, the first artist to accept a hereditary title.

  Works

• Michael Ancher – :File:Vil han klare pynten.jpg|Vil han klare pynten
• William-Adolphe Bouguereau – The Young Shepherdess
• Frank Bramley
• * Everyone His Own Tale
• * '
• Ernest Christophe – La Fatalité
• Albert Dubois-Pillet '
• * :File:0343-0044 ankerplatz.jpg|Ankerplaats
• * :File:DUBOIS-PILLET-Roses.jpg|Bouquet of Roses in a Vase
• * :File:Dubois pillet212.jpg|Landscape with a Lock
• * :File:Albert Dubois-Pillet2.jpg|Still Life with Fish
• * :File:Dubois pillet albert-vue de paris.jpg|View of Paris
• * :File:Dubois-Pillet winter landscape.jpg|Winter Landscape
• Thomas Eakins – The Swimming Hole
• Albert Edelfelt – Portrait of Louis Pasteur
• Henri Fantin-Latour – Around the Piano
• Luke Fildes – Venetians
• Stanhope Forbes – A Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach
• Paul Gauguin
• * :File:Self-Portrait by Paul Gauguin, 1885.jpg|Self-portrait
• * :File:Gauguin Women Bathing.jpg|Women Bathing
• Jean-Léon Gérôme – :File:Jean-Léon Gérôme 007.jpg|The great bath of Brousse
• Ellen Day Hale – :File:Self-Portrait, by Ellen Day Hale.jpg|Self-portrait
• Winslow Homer – The Fog Warning
• Juan Luna
• * 'Chula series
• * Odalisque
• Jan Matejko – :File:Bohdan Chmielnicki z Tuhaj Bejem pod Lwowem Matejko.JPG|Bohdan Khmelnytsky with Tuhaj Bej near Lviv
• John Everett Millais – The Ruling Passion
• Charles William Mitchell – :File:Hypatia.jpg|Hypatia
• Claude Monet – :File:Claude Monet The Cliffs at Etretat.jpg|The Cliffs at Etretat
• Henri-Paul Motte – The Fiancee of Belus
• Walter Osborne – :File:Feeding the chickens, by Walter Frederick Osborne.jpg|Feeding the Chickens
• Anna Palm – :File:Anna Palm - A game of L'hombre in Brøndum's Hotel - Google Art Project.jpg|A game of l'hombre in Brøndums Hotel
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir – :File:Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Girl Braiding Her Hair.jpg|Girl Braiding Her Hair
• Ilya Repin – Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan, 16 November 1581
• Tom Roberts – Winter morning after rain, Gardiner's Creek
• John Singer Sargent
• * '
• * :File:Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife.jpg|Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife
• Therese Schwartze – :File:Thérèse Schwartze - Drie meisjes uit het Amsterdamse Burgerweeshuis.jpg|Three girls from the Amsterdam Orphanage
• Marie Spartali Stillman – Love's Messenger
• Marianne Stokes – :File:Marianne Stikes On the Way to the Fields.jpg|Homeless
• James Tissot
• * The Bridesmaid
• * :File:James Tissot - The Shop Girl.jpg|The Shop Girl
• William Greene Turner – Oliver Perry Monument
• Vincent van Gogh
• * The Potato Eaters
• * Cottages series
• * Old Church Tower at Nuenen series
• * Peasant Character Studies
• * Still life paintings
• * Two Paintings of Amsterdam
• Hubert von Herkomer – :File:Hubert von Herkomer - Hard Times.JPG|Hard Times
• John William Waterhouse – Saint Eulalia
• George Frederic Watts
• * '
• * Mammon
• W. L. Wyllie
• * A Dying Giant''
• * '

  Births

• January 21 – Duncan Grant, Scottish painter
• February 18 – Henri Laurens, French sculptor
• February 24 – Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Polish painter, playwright and novelist
• March 3 – Cecil Thomas, English bronze sculptor and medallist
• March 31 – Pascin, Bulgarian-born painter and draftsman
• April 4 – Leonardo Dudreville, Italian painter
• April 8 – Norman Clyde, American mountaineer, nature photographer and naturalist
• April 12 – Robert Delaunay, French painter
• May 8 – Charles Walter Simpson, English painter of nature and teacher
• May 9 – Gianni Vella, Maltese painter and cartoonist
• May 12 – Mario Sironi, Italian painter
• June 27 – Arthur Lismer, English-born Canadian painter, member of the Group of Seven
• July 5 – André Lhote, French painter and sculptor
• July 11 – Roger de La Fresnaye, French cubist painter
• July 15 – Josef Frank, Austrian-born architect and designer
• August 15 – Nancy Cox-McCormack, American portrait sculptor
• August 26 – Gwen Raverat, née Darwin, English wood engraver
• August 30 – Paul Gösch, German artist and architect
• September 12 – Heinrich Hoffmann, German propaganda photographer
• October 15 – Jóhannes Sveinsson Kjarval, Icelandic painter
• October 21 – Jan Altink, Dutch painter
• November 14 – Sonia Delaunay, Ukrainian-French artist
• December 25? – Lucienne Heuvelmans, French sculptor
• date unknown – Branko Radulović, Serbian painter

  Deaths

• January 20 – Joseph Niklaus Bütler, Swiss painter
• April 18 – Rudolf Eitelberger, Austrian art historian
• April 29 – Ernst Joachim Förster, German painter
• June 13 – Carl Arnold Gonzenbach, Swiss painter
• July 23 - Pierre Alexandre Schoenewerk, French sculptor
• August 30 – Thomas Thornycroft, English sculptor
• September 6 – Narcís Monturiol, Spanish artist and engineer
• September 23 – Carl Spitzweg, German painter
• October 9 – John Bowes, English art collector
• December 5 – Wilhelm Ripe, German painter
• December 11 – James Fahey, English landscape painter
• date unknown – Girolamo Masini, Italian sculptor