March 12 in Art History
7 real events recorded on March 12, the earliest from 1667. 2 artists were born , 1 died on this date.
Born on this day 2
- 1667 Born
Born this day: Antoine Rivalz
Antoine Rivalz, born on March 12, 1667, was a French painter known for his portraits of Toulouse's society in the 18th century, as well as his drawings and notable works like An Allegory, Probably of the Peace of Utrecht of 1713. He served as the official painter of his hometown, following in his father's footsteps.
Rivalz's work remains a testament to the artistic culture of 18th-century France.
- 1770 Born
Born this day: Karl August Senff
Karl August Senff, a Baltic German painter, engraver, and teacher, was born on March 12, 1770. He is notable for his etchings of military figures and portraits, such as Portrait of a Woman and Portrait of Professor Lorenz Ferdinand Ewers. As a professor of drawing, he trained prominent Estonian artists.
Senff's work and teaching legacy continue to influence Estonian art to this day.
Died on this day 1
- 1749 Died
Died this day: Alessandro Magnasco
Alessandro Magnasco, an Italian late-Baroque painter, was known for his stylized and often phantasmagoric scenes, characterized by fragmented forms and swift brushstrokes. Active in Milan and Genoa, his work continues to captivate with its unique blend of light and fantasy. On March 12, 1749, Magnasco passed away, leaving behind a legacy of distinctive and imaginative paintings.
Magnasco's innovative style influenced the development of Italian Rococo and Baroque painting.
Exhibitions & salons 2
- 2021 Exhibition
Desert X 2021 opens across the Coachella Valley
Desert X 2021 opened on March 12, 2021, across the Coachella Valley and ran through May 16. Curated by artistic director Neville Wakefield with co-curator Cesar Garcia-Alvarez, the site-specific exhibition used the desert as both a physical setting and a political idea. Its commissioned works addressed the lived realities of the region and broader questions of land, migration, climate, identity, feminism, water rights, Indigenous sovereignty, and Black life. Artists included Zahrah Alghamdi, Ghada Amer, Felipe Baeza, Serge Attukwei Clottey, Nicholas Galanin, Alicja Kwade, Oscar Murillo, Christopher Myers, Eduardo Sarabia, Xaviera Simmons, and Vivian Suter.
The exhibition helped reestablish large-scale outdoor art viewing after pandemic lockdowns and expanded Desert X's international profile.
- 2022 Exhibition
Alice Neel: People Come First opens at the de Young
Alice Neel: People Come First opened at the de Young Museum on March 12, 2022, following presentations at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Guggenheim Bilbao. The career-spanning retrospective gathered more than 100 works and framed Neel as a major twentieth-century portraitist whose art persisted against the dominance of abstraction. Her paintings of friends, children, pregnant women, activists, neighbors, artists, and strangers emphasized psychological presence, political sympathy, and the dignity of ordinary sitters. The San Francisco presentation extended the reassessment that had made the Met version the largest Neel exhibition in New York in two decades.
The exhibition helped consolidate Neel's late canonization as a central American realist and feminist portrait painter.
Openings & foundings 1
- 2022 Opening
Valley Gallery and Hiroshi Sugimoto Gallery open on Naoshima
On March 12, 2022, two new Benesse Art Site Naoshima facilities opened on Naoshima: Tadao Ando's Valley Gallery and the Hiroshi Sugimoto Gallery: Time Corridors. The opening coincided with the thirtieth anniversary of Benesse Art Site's activities on the island and preceded the Setouchi Triennale. Valley Gallery, Ando's ninth building on Naoshima, was sited in a valley near the Lee Ufan Museum and conceived as a semi-open concrete structure integrated with the landscape. Its program included works such as Yayoi Kusama's Narcissus Garden and Tsuyoshi Ozawa's 88 Slag Buddhas, while the Sugimoto gallery gave one of Japan's most important contemporary artists a dedicated island setting.
The openings deepened Naoshima's identity as a landscape-scale art destination shaped by architecture, collection display, and site-specific pilgrimage.
Auctions, prizes & heists 1
- 1912 Auction
Harrison collection auction sets an American-painting record
The final sale of the Joseph Harrison Jr. collection took place in Philadelphia on March 12, 1912, after an earlier postponement. The sale centered on major American paintings and sculptures from one of Philadelphia's most ambitious nineteenth-century private collections. Its star lot was Gilbert Stuart's 1795 Vaughn portrait of George Washington, bought by New York dealer Thomas B. Clarke for $16,100, described as a record auction price for an American painting. The sale then took an unusual turn: once enough money had been raised to satisfy the estate's bequests, an executor stopped the auction and announced that the remaining works would go to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
The sale both reset the market for American painting and preserved important Harrison works for Philadelphia.
Gilbert Stuart , Rembrandt Peale , Charles Willson Peale Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia