1806 in art

Events in the year 1806 in art.

Events

• 18 January – The British Institution opens the former Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in Pall Mall, London, as the "British Gallery",^[1] alternating the world's first regular temporary exhibitions of Old Master paintings with sale exhibitions of the work of living artists.
• 5 May – The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1806 opens at Somerset House in London.^[2]

Works

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Napoleon on his Imperial Throne, 1806, oil on canvas, 260 x 163 cm, Musée de l'Armée, Paris

• Antonio Canova – Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker (bronze nude)
• Marguerite Gérard – The Clemency of Napoleon^[3]
• Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson – Charles-Marie Bonaparte
• John Hoppner – Sleeping Venus and Cupid
• Jean-Antoine Houdon – Portrait bust of Napoleon
• Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
  • La Belle Zélie
  • Mademoiselle Caroline Rivière
  • Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne
• Thomas Lawrence – Portrait of Lord Westmoreland^[4]
• Henry Raeburn – Lord Newton (approximate date)
• Philipp Otto Runge – The Hülsenbeck Children
• Joseph Karl Stieler – Self-portrait
• Benjamin West
  • The Death of Nelson
  • Portrait of Robert Fulton
  • Thetis Bringing the Armor to Achilles (second version)
• David Wilkie
  • The Blind Fiddler
  • King Alfred burning the cakes

Births

• 10 January – Louis Joseph César Ducornet, French painter (used his feet) (died 1856)
• 13 January – Eugen Napoleon Neureuther, German painter and illustrator (died 1882)^[5]
• 25 January – Daniel Maclise, Irish-born painter (died 1882)^[6]
• 1 February – George Harvey, Scottish genre painter (died 1876)
• 22 February – Antoine Wiertz, Belgian painter (died 1865)
• 8 March – Antonio María Esquivel, Spanish Romantic painter (died 1857)^[7]
• 12 April – Peter Rindisbacher, Swiss-born anthropological painter (died 1834)
• 2 May – Marc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre, Swiss painter (born 1874)
• 4 June – Daniel Macnee, Scottish portrait painter (died 1882)
• 11 June – James Ballantine, Scottish painter and author (died 1877)
• 28 July – Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov, Russian painter who adhered to Neoclassicism (died 1858)
• 19 September – William Dyce, Scottish-born painter (died 1864)
• 24 September – Niels Christian Kierkegaard, Danish draftsman and lithographer (died 1882)
• October (10 or 12) – David Scott, Scottish historical painter (died 1849)

Deaths

• 6 January – Jean Henri Riesener, German furniture designer (born 1734)
• 22 February – James Barry, Irish painter, one of the earliest romantic painters working in Britain (born 1741)
• 17 March – Rienk Jelgerhuis, Dutch painter, engraver and draftsman (born 1729)
• April – John Russell, English portrait painter (born 1745)
• 8 April – Robert Barker, itinerant portrait painter (born 1739)^[8]
• 26 April – Václav Bernard Ambrosi, Czech miniature painter (born 1723)
• 5 June – Gabriel François Doyen, French painter (born 1726)^[9]
• 3 July – Carlo Magini, Italian painter of the Baroque period (born 1720)^[10]
• 10 July – George Stubbs, British painter, best known for his paintings of horses (born 1724)
• 22 August – Jean-Honoré Fragonard, French painter and printmaker (born 1732)^[11]
• 23 August – Johann Eleazar Zeissig, German genre, portrait and porcelain painter, and engraver (born 1737)
• 9 October – Friedrich August Brand, Austrian painter and engraver of historical subjects and landscapes (born 1735)
• 10 October – Therese Maron, German painter active in Rome (born 1725)
• 22 October – Thomas Sheraton, English furniture designer (born 1751)
• 31 October – Utamaro, Japanese printmaker and painter, especially of woodblock prints (ukiyo-e) (born 1753)
• date unknown
  • Ezekiel Abraham Ezekiel, English engraver (born 1757)^[12]
  • Henry Pelham, American painter, engraver, and cartographer (born 1748/1749) (drowned)
  • Johann Dallinger von Dalling, Austrian painter (born 1741)
• probable – Danwon, Korean painter of the late Joseon period (born 1745)

References

1. Smith, Thomas (1860). Recollections of the British Institution, for promoting the fine arts in the United Kingdom. London: Simpkin & Marshall and Edward Stanford. pp. 1–12. British Institution Benjamin West.
2. "1806 The Indifference of Sculptors". Royal Academy Summer Exhibition: a Chronicle. Retrieved 2 January 2026.
3. "The Clemency of Napoleon I: Napoleon and the Princess of Hatzfeld". Ministry of Culture. Retrieved 2 January 2026.
4. Javier Costa Clavell (1977). Prado Museum: Foreign Painting. Escudo de Oro. pp. 124–5.
5. "Eugen Napoleon Neureuther". Nymphenburg.com. Retrieved 2 January 2026.
6. Monkhouse, William (1885–1900). "Maclise, Daniel" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
7. Arte Español: Journal of the "Sociedad Española de Amigos del Arte" [1] Estudio y catálogo de la obra de Esquivel, by Bernardino de Pantorba (1959)
8. Webb, Alfred (1878). "Barker, Robert" . A Compendium of Irish Biography. Dublin: M. H. Gill & son.
9.  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Doyen, Gabriel François". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 461.
10. Rodolfo Battistini, La Quadreria – Carlo Magini, La vita at Fondazione Carifano (in Italian), accessed 3 May 2018
11. Rosenberg, Pierre (1 January 1988). Fragonard. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0-87099-516-3.
12.  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Ezekiel, Abraham Ezekiel". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.