1840 in art

Events

• March 4 – Alexander S. Wolcott and John Johnson open their "Daguerreian Parlor" on Broadway, the world's first commercial photography portrait studio.
• May 1 – Issue in the United Kingdom of the Penny Black, the world's first postage stamp, depicting the head of Queen Victoria engraved by Charles Heath and his son Frederick based on a sketch provided by Henry Corbould itself based on a cameo portrait by William Wyon, together with Mulready stationery. The stamp becomes valid for postage from May 6.
• September 30 – Foundation of Nelson's Column laid in London, Trafalgar Square being laid out and paved around it during the year.

  Works

• Jean-Antoine Alavoine and Joseph-Louis Duc – July Column, Place de la Bastille, Paris; incorporating Auguste Dumont's Génie de la Liberté and bas-reliefs by Antoine-Louis Barye and others
• Thomas Jones Barker – The Bride of Death
• François Bouchot – :File:Bouchot - Le general Bonaparte au Conseil des Cinq-Cents.jpg|Napoleon Bonaparte in the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire in Saint-Cloud
• Théodore Chassériau
• * :File:1840 Chasseriau Theodore - Andromeda Chained to the Rock by the Nereids.jpg|Andromeda Chained to the Rock by the Nereids
• * Diana Surprised by Actaeon
• * Portrait of the Reverend Father Dominique Lacordaire, of the Order of the Predicant Friars
• Francis Danby – The Deluge
• Eugène Delacroix
• * Entry of the Crusaders in Constantinople
• * The Shipwreck of Don Juan
• William Etty – The Wrestlers
• Horatio Greenough – George Washington
• Edwin Landseer – Laying Down The Law, or Trial by Jury
• Robert Scott Lauder – :File:David Roberts 01.jpg|David Roberts Esq. in the dress he wore in Palestine
• John Martin – The Eve of the Deluge and The Assuaging of the Waters
• John Christian Schetky – :File:John Christian Schetky, Loss of the Royal George.jpg|Loss of the Royal George
• Armand Toussaint – Persephone
• J. M. W. Turner – The Slave Ship, or Slavers throwing overboard the Dead and Dying — Typhoon coming on

  Awards

• Grand Prix de Rome, painting:
• Grand Prix de Rome, sculpture:
• Grand Prix de Rome, architecture: Théodore Ballu.
• Grand Prix de Rome, music: F.E.V. Bazin.

  Births

• April 22 – Odilon Redon, French painter and graphic artist
• April 28 – Caroline Shawk Brooks, American sculptor
• May 2 – Philippe Solari, Provençal sculptor
• May 28 – Hans Makart, Austrian painter and designer
• July 8 – Heinrich von Angeli, Austrian society portrait painter
• August 14 – Briton Rivière, English painter
• September 27 – Thomas Nast, German American cartoonist
• November 12 – Auguste Rodin, French sculptor
• November 14 – Claude Monet, French Impressionist painter
• date unknown – Ida Göthilda Nilsson, Swedish sculptor
• probable – Timothy H. O'Sullivan, Irish American photographer of the American Civil War

  Deaths

• January 16 – František Tkadlík, Czech painter
• February 9 – Luke Clennell, English engraver and painter
• February 27 – Henry Wyatt, English portrait painter
• March 19 – Thomas Daniell, landscape painter
• March 30 – Beau Brummell, leader of fashion
• April 7 – William Heath, English satirical engraver
• April 10 – Alexander Nasmyth, painter
• May 5 – Robert Trewick Bone English painter of sacred, classical and genre scenes
• May 7 – Caspar David Friedrich, painter
• May 11 – Eduard Joseph d'Alton, German engraver and naturalist
• June 20 – Pierre-Joseph Redouté, flower painter
• July 6 – Johann Heinrich Ramberg, German painter and printmaker
• July 23 – Carl Blechen, German painter, specializing in fantastic landscapes with demons and grotesque figures
• August 30 - Jonas Damelis, Lithuanian neoclassicist painter
• October 28 – Reverend John Thomson, minister of Duddingston Kirk near Edinburgh, and landscape painter
• November 7 – Pierre Petitot, French sculptor
• December 11 – Franz Bauer, Austrian microscopist and botanical artist
• date unknown
• * Moritz Fuerst, American engraver and medallist
• * Luigi Rados, Italian engraver