This is a list of events that occurred in the year 1638 in art.

• Anthony van Dyck is granted denizenship by Charles I of England and marries Mary, daughter of Lord Ruthven; his assistant Adriaen Hanneman returns to his native Hague to become the leading portraitist there.
• Francisco Zurbarán begins work on the series of paintings in the Santa María de Guadalupe

• Gian Lorenzo Bernini – Bust of Thomas Baker
• Frans Hals – Claes Duyst van Voorhout
• Hubert Le Sueur – Equestrian statue of Charles I, Charing Cross (London)
• Nicolas Poussin – Et in Arcadia ego (Les bergers d'Arcadie, Louvre)
• Rembrandt
  • Landscape with the Good Samaritan
  • Stormy Landscape
• Peter Paul Rubens
  • The Massacre of the Innocents (second version – approximate date)
  • The Judgement of Paris (second version – approximate date)
• Justus Sustermans – Portrait of Galileo Galilei
• Anthony van Dyck – some dates approximate
  • Equestrian Portrait of Charles I
  • George Digby
  • Thomas Killigrew
  • Thomas Killigrew and Lord Crofts
  • Lord John Stuart and his brother Lord Bernard Stuart
  • Triple Portrait of Henrietta Maria

• January 8 - Elisabetta Sirani, Italian painter (died 1665)
• May 12 - Pedro Atanasio Bocanegra, Spanish painter (died 1688)
• June 6 (bapt.) - Gerrit Adriaenszoon Berckheyde, Dutch artist (died 1698)
• July 10 – David Teniers III, Flemish painter (died 1685)
• August 22 - Georg Christoph Eimmart, German draughtsman and engraver (died 1705)
• September 20 - Antonio Gherardi, painter, sculptor and architect (died 1702)
• October 31 (bapt.) – Meindert Hobbema, Dutch landscape painter (died 1709)
• date unknown
  • Antonio Franchi, Italian painter active mainly in Florence and Lucca (died 1709)
  • Luigi Garzi, Italian painter of the Baroque period (died 1721)
  • Crisóstomo Martinez, Valencian painter and engraver known for his anatomical atlas (died 1694)
  • Mo'en Mosavver, Persian miniaturist during the Safavid period (died 1697)
  • Jan Karel Donatus van Beecq, Dutch painter (died 1722)

• January - Adriaen Brouwer, Flemish genre painter (born 1605)
• March 6 - Paulus Moreelse, Dutch painter, mainly of portraits (born 1571)
• March 10 - Cornelis van der Geest, Flemish merchant and art collector (born 1577)
• April 14 - Willem Jacobsz Delff, Dutch painter (born 1580)
• August 1 - Joachim Wtewael, Dutch painter and engraver (born 1566)
• August 18 - Giovanni Andrea Ansaldo, Italian painter active mainly in Genoa (born 1584)
• October - Gillis d'Hondecoeter, Dutch painter in a Flemish style (born 1575/1580)
• November 11 - Cornelis van Haarlem, Dutch painter and draughtsman, leading Mannerist artist (born 1562)
• December 23 - Barbara Longhi, Italian painter (born 1552)
• date unknown
  • Pietro Francesco Alberti, Italian painter and engraver (born 1584)
  • Baldassare Aloisi, Italian portrait painter and engraver (born 1578)
  • Vincenzo Carducci, Italian painter (born 1568)
  • Santo Peranda, historical painter of Venice (born 1566)
  • Giovanni Giacomo Semenza, Italian painter (born 1580)
  • Magdalena van de Passe, engraver and important member of the Van de Passe family of artists (born 1600)
  • Jacob van Swanenburgh, Dutch history painter and teacher (born 1571)
• probable
  • Odoardo Fialetti, Italian painter and printmaker (born 1573)
  • Hercules Seghers, Dutch painter and printmaker of the Dutch Golden Age (born 1589)