The year 1888 in art involved some significant events.
Events
January 26 – Paul Gauguin leaves Paris to rejoin the Pont-Aven School of artists in Brittany, where he will remain until October and meet with Émile Bernard February – Fifth annual exhibition of Les XX, at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels. Artists invited to show in addition to members of the group include Henri-Edmond Cross, Albert Dubois-Pillet, Odilon Redon, Paul Signac, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and James McNeill Whistler February 21 – Vincent van Gogh moves to Arles where he will be very productive as a painter March – Van Gogh begins his Langlois Bridge at Arles series March 22 – Fourth exhibition by the Société des Artistes Indépendants opens in Paris; it includes three paintings by van Gogh June – Van Gogh visits Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer July 14 The Monument à Léon Gambetta, by Jean-Paul Aubé, is inaugurated at the Louvre Critic Emile Hennequin drowns at Samois-sur-Seine before his protégé Odilon Redon August – Van Gogh begins his Décoration for the Yellow House at Arles including the Arles Sunflowers series of paintings August 11 – James McNeill Whistler marries fellow-artist Beatrice ("Trixie") Godwin (née Beatrix Birnie Philip), widow of architect E. W. Godwin, and they spend a working honeymoon in France October 3 – Leeds City Art Gallery in England opens October 23 – Paul Gauguin joins van Gogh in Arles, bringing Émile Bernard's painting Le Pardon de Pont-Aven December 23 – Having quarrelled with Gauguin, van Gogh cuts off the lower part of his own left ear, taking it to a brothel, and is removed to the local hospital Paul Ranson, Paul Sérusier and Maurice Denis become fellow students at the Académie Julian and form Les Nabis The weekly illustrated newspaper The Graphic commissions and exhibits in London 21 paintings of Shakespeare's heroines William De Morgan moves his London art pottery from Merton Abbey to Fulham Publication in English of Irish-born writer George Moore's autobiographical novel Confessions of a Young Man (London) describing bohemian life in 1870s Paris among the Impressionist painters
Exhibitions
International Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry, in Glasgow, Scotland
Works
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema – The Roses of Heliogabalus
Reinhold Begas – Centaur and Nymph (bronze) Émile Bernard Le Pardon de Pont-Aven ("Breton Women in the Meadow") Brothel Scene, for Vincent (watercolor) Self-portrait with portrait of Paul Gauguin The Yellow Tree Joseph Boehm Equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington (Hyde Park Corner, London) Queen Victoria Statue (College Green, Bristol) William-Adolphe Bouguereau – The First Mourning Edward Burne-Jones – The Nativity Gustave Caillebotte The Plain of Gennevilliers Sailing boats at Argenteuil Charles Calverley - Statue of Robert Burns (Albany, New York) Émile Friant - La Toussaint Philip Hermogenes Calderon – Juliet William Merritt Chase The Blue Kimono Modern Magdalen Portrait of a Lady in Pink Charles Conder – A holiday at Mentone David Edward Cronin – Fugitive Slaves in the Dismal Swamp, Virginia Édouard Detaille – Le Rêve Alexander Doyle – William Jasper Monument James Ensor – The Entry of Christ into Brussels in 1889 (J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu) Akseli Gallen-Kallela – Démasquée Paul Gauguin The Painter of Sunflowers (December) Self-Portrait with Portrait of Émile Bernard (Les misérables) Vision After the Sermon Alfred Gilbert – Statue of Queen Victoria (Winchester) Antonio Gisbert Pérez - Execution of Torrijos and his Companions on the Beach at Málaga Peder Severin Krøyer – Hip, Hip, Hurrah! Frederic Leighton – Captive Andromache (approximate date) William Logsdail – St Martin-in-the-Fields Cesare Maccari – Cicero Denounces Catiline (fresco in Palazzo Madama, Rome) Albert Joseph Moore – A River Side Philip Richard Morris – Audrey Giovanni Muzzioli – The Funeral of Britannicus Ilya Repin Saint Nicholas of Myra saves three innocents from death They Did Not Expect Him Paul Sérusier – Le Talisman Georges Seurat – completion of Models (Les Poseuses) (Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia) Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec – At the Circus Fernando, Equestrienne Henry Scott Tuke – The Bathers Giovanni Turini – Statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi (bronze, Washington Square Park, New York City) John Henry Twachtman – Landscape, Branchville J. W. Waterhouse – The Lady of Shalott