Events from the year 1797 in art.

• Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans established in France.

• Caspar David Friedrich – Landscape with Temple in Ruins
• François Gérard – Belisarius
• Francisco Goya – Bernardo de Iriarte
• Anton Graff – Elisa von der Recke
• Henry Howard – Anne Flaxman (approximate date)
• Thomas Lawrence – Portrait of Sir Edward Pellew
• Henry Tresham – The Earl of Warwick's Vow Previous to The Battle of Towton

• January 19 – Cornelia Aletta van Hulst, Dutch painter (died 1870)
• April 5 – Johann Fischbach, Austrian painter of landscapes and genre art (died 1871)
• May 29 – Louise-Adéone Drölling, French painter and draughtswoman (died 1836)
• June 13 – Louis Pierre Henriquel-Dupont, French engraver (died 1892)
• July 12 – Adele Schopenhauer, German papercut artist and novelist (died 1849)
• June 16 – Sophie Fremiet, French painter (died 1867)
• July 17 – Hippolyte Delaroche, French painter (died 1856)
• August 8 – Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury, French painter (died 1890)
• August 20 – Johan Frederik Møller, Danish painter and photographer (died 1871)
• September 5 – John Blennerhassett Martin, American painter, engraver and lithographer (died 1857)
• September 13 – Joseph Stannard, English painter of the Norwich school (died 1830)
• September 19 – Jan Suchodolski, Polish painter and Army officer (died 1875)
• September 25 – Cornelis Kruseman, Dutch painter (died 1857)
• October 9 – Henry Collen, English Royal miniature portrait painter (died 1879)
• October 29 – Friedrich Loos, Austrian Biedermeier style painter, etcher and lithographer (died 1890)
• date unknown
  • Tivadar Alconiere, Hungarian painter (died 1865)
  • Tommaso Benedetti, English-born Austrian painter (died 1863)
  • Louis-Henri Brévière, French wood-engraver (died 1869)
  • Joseph-Désiré Court, French painter of historical subjects and portraits (died 1865)
  • Hiroshige, Japanese ukiyo-e artist (died 1858)
  • Charles C. Ingham, Irish portrait painter and later founder of the New York National Academy of Design (died 1863)
  • Louis Stanislas Marin-Lavigne, French painter and lithographer (died 1860)
  • Nicolae Teodorescu, Moldavian, later Romanian church painter (muralist) (died 1880)
• probable
  • John O'Keeffe, Irish portrait and figure painter (died 1838)
  • Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Japanese artist of the ukiyo-e style of woodblock prints and painting and belonged to the Utagawa school (died 1861)

• February 12 – Pierre-François Basan, French engraver (born 1723)
• March 6 – William Hodges, English landscape painter (born 1744)
• March 30 – Giorgio Anselmi, Italian painter (born 1723)
• April 4– Pierre-François Berruer, French sculptor (born 1733)
• June 23 – Antonio Diziani, Italian painter of veduta, landscapes and vistas (born 1737)
• July 18 – Jean-Bernard Restout, French painter (born 1732)
• August 18 – Josiah Spode, English potter (born 1733)
• August 29 – Joseph Wright of Derby, English painter (born 1734)
• September 29 - George Raper, English nature artist (born 1769)
• December 14 – John Robert Cozens, English draftsman and painter of romantic watercolor landscapes (born 1752)
• date unknown
  • Manuel Francisco Álvarez de la Peña, Spanish sculptor (born 1727)
  • Christina Elisabeth Carowsky, Swedish portrait painter (born 1745)
  • Charles Joseph Flipart, French painter and engraver (born 1721)
  • Emanuel Granberg, Finnish painter (born 1754)
  • Thomas Kirk, English painter, illustrator and engraver (born 1765)