Events from the year 1679 in art.

• (unknown)

• François de Troy – Portrait of Nils Bielke
• Cornelius Jansen (attributed) – Memorial painting of Isaac Bargrave in Canterbury Cathedral
• Jan van Kessel – Portrait of a family in a garden

• First part of Jieziyuan Huazhuan ("Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden"), a manual on landscape painting, published in China

• January 27 – Jean-François de Troy, French painter (died 1752)
• April 2 - Marcellus Laroon the Younger, English painter and draughtsman (died 1772)
• April 24 - Francesco Mancini, Italian painter (died 1758)
• date unknown
  • Elias Baeck, German painter and engraver (died 1747)
  • Giuseppe Dallamano, Italian painter of quadratura in Turin (died 1758)
  • Francesco Fernandi, Italian painter (died 1740)

• January 23 – Girolamo Forabosco, Italian painter (born 1605)
• January 29 – Carlo Ceresa, Italian painter of portraitures, altarpieces and religious works (born 1609)
• February 3 (bur.) – Jan Steen, Dutch genre painter (born 1626)
• February 27 (bur.) – Joan Carlile, English professional portrait painter (born c. 1606)
• March 27 – Abraham Mignon, Dutch flower painter born at Frankfurt (born 1640)
• April 22 – Giovanni Battista Passeri, Italian painter of genre and still life paintings (born 1610)
• June 15 – Guillaume Courtois, French painter and etcher (born 1628)
• October - Barent Avercamp, Dutch painter (born 1612)
• December
  • Jan van de Cappelle, Dutch Golden Age painter of seascapes and winter landscapes (born 1626)
  • Jan Victors, Dutch painter of subjects from the Bible (born 1619)
• date unknown
  • Baldassare Bianchi, Italian painter of the Baroque period (born 1612)
  • Tomas de Aguiar, Spanish painter of the Baroque period (born unknown)
  • Josse de Corte, French sculptor (born 1627)
  • Felipe Diricksen, Spanish Baroque painter primarily of portraits and religious paintings (born 1590)
  • Robert Streater, English landscape, history, still-life and portrait artist, architectural painter and etcher (born 1621)