March 16 in Art History
7 real events recorded on March 16, the earliest from 1771. 2 artists were born , 1 died on this date.
Born on this day 2
- 1771 Born
Born this day: Antoine-Jean Gros
Antoine-Jean Gros, born on March 16, 1771, was a French painter of historical subjects, known for his large-scale battle scenes and portraits, including notable works of Napoleon Bonaparte and other prominent figures. He studied under Jacques-Louis David and gained fame through his depiction of Napoleon at the Battle of Arcole.
Gros' work continues to be celebrated for its role in shaping the visual narrative of Napoleon's era and French history.
- 1822 Born
Born this day: Rosa Bonheur
Rosa Bonheur, born on March 16, 1822, was a French artist renowned for her realistic paintings and sculptures of animals, exemplified in works like The Horse Fair and Ploughing in the Nivernais. Her art showcased a deep understanding of her subjects, contributing to her status as the most famous female painter of the 19th century.
Rosa Bonheur's legacy lies in her pioneering role as a female artist in a male-dominated field, paving the way for future generations of women in art.
Died on this day 1
- 1881 Died
Died this day: Hugues Merle
Hugues Merle was a French painter known for his sentimental and moral subjects, often drawing comparisons to William-Adolphe Bouguereau. His work, as seen in pieces like Falling Leaves and Thoughts of the Future, showcases his ability to convey emotion and tell stories through his art.
Merle's sentimental paintings continue to evoke emotions and spark reflection in viewers today.
Exhibitions & salons 1
- 1990 Exhibition
SisterSerpents opens Rattle Your Rage
On March 16, 1990, the radical feminist art collective SisterSerpents opened Rattle Your Rage: Women's Views of Their Oppressors in Chicago. The exhibition brought together work by 32 artists from around the United States and was framed as direct visual opposition to misogyny, patriarchal art-world habits, anti-abortion politics, and violence against women. Its opening program paired the exhibition with a screening of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Bremer Freiheit and a panel on failures of law enforcement to protect abused women. SisterSerpents worked anonymously through posters, stickers, zines, and exhibitions, with publicly named founding members including Jeramy Turner and Mary Ellen Croteau. The show helped define the group's agitational, street-oriented feminist art practice.
The exhibition anchored SisterSerpents' reputation as a confrontational feminist art collective of the early 1990s.
Unveilings & commissions 2
- 2010 Commission
Groundbreaking for Zaha Hadid's Broad Art Museum
On March 16, 2010, construction began on the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University with a groundbreaking attended by Eli Broad and architect Zaha Hadid. The event moved a high-profile museum commission from design competition into construction: Hadid's angular building would later open in November 2012 as a contemporary art museum with pleated stainless steel and glass facades, nontraditional gallery spaces, and a public role linking the campus to East Lansing. The museum also absorbed the legacy of MSU's earlier Kresge Art Museum collection while emphasizing contemporary art and emerging to mid-career artists. The groundbreaking matters as a date when one of Hadid's comparatively rare U.S. museum projects became physically committed.
The museum became a prominent Zaha Hadid landmark and reshaped MSU's art-museum identity.
- 2013 Unveiling
Christo fills the Gasometer with Big Air Package
On March 16, 2013, Christo opened Big Air Package inside the Gasometer Oberhausen, the vast former gas holder in Germany's Ruhr region. The installation, which remained on view until December 30, transformed the industrial monument into a walk-in environment of light, scale, and pressure: a 90-meter-high, 50-meter-wide inflated form made from translucent fabric and rope. It was Christo's second project in the Gasometer after The Wall in 1999 and his first major work conceived after Jeanne-Claude's death. Contemporary accounts and later summaries identify it as temporarily the largest self-supporting sculpture in the world, making it a major late-career statement about enclosure, monumentality, and public access.
The project extended Christo and Jeanne-Claude's legacy of temporary monumental art into a postindustrial exhibition space.
Auctions, prizes & heists 1
- 2016 Auction
Omar El-Nagdi's Sarajevo sells at auction
On March 16, 2016, Omar El-Nagdi's 1992 painting Sarajevo sold for $1,145,000. The result stands out because El-Nagdi, an Egyptian painter associated with abstract expressionist and cubist approaches and with Cairo's Faculty of Fine Arts milieu, was part of a modern Arab art market that gained stronger international auction visibility in the 2000s and 2010s. Sarajevo's title points beyond Egypt to the Bosnian war and to El-Nagdi's interest in turning political violence into dense painterly drama. The seven-figure sale marked a significant market moment for the artist and for the broader valuation of modern Middle Eastern art in international auction circuits.
The sale helped signal rising auction demand for modern Egyptian and Middle Eastern painting.