Events from the year 1879 in art.

• April 10–May 11 – Fourth Impressionist exhibition in Paris, arranged by Gustave Caillebotte at 28 avenue de l'Opéra. ^[1]
• Ford Madox Brown begins painting The Manchester Murals in Manchester Town Hall ( England).
• Chicago Academy of Fine Arts established.
• Guimet Museum of Asian art established in Lyon, France.
• Museum of Fine Arts Berne established in Switzerland.
• Kate Greenaway's first book, with her own colour illustrations, Under the Window: Pictures & Rhymes for Children, is published in London.

• Michael Ancher – Vil han klare pynten (Will he round the point)
• Albert Fitch Bellows – The Parsonage
• William-Adolphe Bouguereau – The Birth of Venus
• William Burges – Golden Bed
• Edward Burne-Jones – The Annunciation
• John Ward Dunsmore – Portrait of Thomas Couture (1815-1879) on His Deathbed (chalk on paper mounted on canvas) ^[2]
• Edgar Degas
  • The Dance Lesson (approximate date)
  • Diego Martelli ^[3]
  • Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando
  • Portrait of Edmond Duranty
  • Portrait of Henri Michel-Lévy in his studio
  • Portraits at the Stock Exchange
• Gustave Achille Guillaumet – Laghouat in the Algerian Sahara
• Ivan Kramskoi – Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin
• George Dunlop Leslie – Alice in Wonderland
• Édouard Manet
  • The Café-Concert
  • Self-Portrait with Palette
  • In the Conservatory
• John Everett Millais
  • Cherry Ripe
  • Louise Jopling
• Albert Joseph Moore – Topaz
• Vasily Perov – Pugachev's Judgement
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir – The Dreamer
• John Singer Sargent
  • In the Luxembourg Gardens (Luxembourg Gardens at Twilight)
  • Portrait of Carolus-Duran
• Charlotte Schreiber – The Croppy Boy (The Confession of an Irish Patriot)
• James Tissot – Mrs. Newton with a Parasol (approximate date)

• January 13 – William Reid Dick, Scottish sculptor (died 1961)
• March 27 – Edward Steichen, American photographer, painter, and art gallery and museum curator (died 1973)
• June 4 – Mabel Lucie Attwell, English illustrator (died 1964)
• July 26 – Maria Bal, Polish model (died 1955)
• September 23 – Charles Camoin, French painter (died 1965)
• October 22 – Sir Matthew Smith, English painter (died 1959)
• November 18 – Sybil Pye, English bookbinder (died 1958)
• December 18 – Paul Klee, Swiss painter (died 1940)

• January 26 – Julia Margaret Cameron, British photographer in Ceylon (born 1815)
• February 10 – Honoré Daumier, French painter, sculptor and caricaturist (born 1808)
• March 21 – Valentine Bartholomew, English flower painter (born 1799)
• March 27 – Hércules Florence, French-born Brazilian painter and pioneer photographer (born 1817)
• March 30 – Thomas Couture, French painter and art teacher (born 1815)
• May 8 – Henry Collen, English royal miniature portrait painter (born 1797)
• June 24 – Eliseo Sala, Italian painter (born 1813)
• July 7 – George Caleb Bingham, American realist artist (born 1811)
• July 16 – Frederick Langenheim, German American pioneer of panoramic photography (born 1809)
• July 17 – Maurycy Gottlieb, Polish Jewish painter (born 1804)
• August 3 – Joseph Severn, English portrait and subject painter (born 1793)
• September 5 – Camille Doncieux, French first wife and model of Claude Monet (born 1847)
• September 6 – Amédée de Noé, French caricaturist (born 1818)
• September 8 – William Morris Hunt, American painter (born 1824)
• November 2 – Abbondio Sangiorgio, Italian sculptor (born 1798)
• November 18 – André Giroux, French painter and photographer (born 1801)
• December 1 – Franz Ittenbach, German religious painter (born 1813)
• Chō Kōran, Japanese poet and nanga artist (born 1804)