Events from the year 1838 in art.

• April 8 – The British National Gallery first opens to the public in the building purpose-designed for it by William Wilkins in Trafalgar Square, London.
• August 31 – Scottish-born scene painter David Roberts sets sail for Egypt, with the encouragement of J. M. W. Turner, to produce a series of drawings of the region for use as the basis for paintings and chromolithographs.

• Asher B. Durand – Dance on the Battery in the Presence of Peter Stuyvesant
• Eugène Delacroix
  • Convulsionists of Tangiers (completed)^[1]
  • Portrait of Frédéric Chopin and George Sand (unfinished; later separated)
• John Linnell – Portrait of Sir Robert Peel
• Louis Meijer – Self-portrait
• Horace Vernet – The Capture of Constantine
• Sir David Wilkie
  • The Bride at her Toilet
  • The First Council of Queen Victoria
• William Wyon – young profile head of Queen Victoria on coins of the pound sterling

• March 28 – Jean-Paul Laurens, painter and sculptor (died 1921)
• May 15 – Nicolae Grigorescu, painter (died 1907)
• June 11 – Mariano Fortuny, painter (died 1874)
• June 24 – Jan Matejko, painter (died 1893)
• September 18 – Anton Mauve, painter (died 1888)
• November 18 – William Keith, painter (died 1911)
• November 28 – Alexander Opekushin, sculptor (died 1923)
• December 25 – Raffaello Sernesi, painter and medallist (died 1866)
• December 31 – Jules Dalou, sculptor (died 1902)

• January 5 – Maria Cosway, Italian-English painter, engraver, composer, musician, and society hostess (born 1760)
• January 8 – Josef Grassi, Austrian painter especially of portraits (born 1757)
• February 28 – Charles Thévenin, neoclassical French painter, known for heroic scenes (born 1764)
• March 2 – Benjamin Barker, landscape painter (born 1776)
• March 29 – Carlo Lasinio, Italian engraver (born 1759)
• May 10 – José Aparicio, Spanish painter of the Neoclassic period (born 1773)
• June 4 – Claude Ramey, sculptor (born 1754)
• August 5 – Anton Schimser, Polish sculptor of Austrian origin (born 1790)
• September 5 – Charles Percier, architect and designer (born 1764)
• November 9 – Friedrich Carl Gröger, north-German portrait painter and lithographer (born 1766)
• November 29 – Erik Gustaf Göthe, Swedish sculptor (born 1779)
• date unknown – John O'Keeffe, Irish portrait and figure painter (born 1797)