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1781 in art
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none January 2026
1781 art
Events from the year 1781 in art.
Events
April 30 – The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1781 opens at Somerset House in Londonhttps://chronicle250.com/1781#catalogue
August 25 – The Salon of 1781 opens at the Louvre in ParisBaetjer, Katharine. French Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art from the Early Eighteenth Century through the Revolution. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019. p.29
August 27 – Danish artists Marie Jeanne Crevoisier and Johan Frederik Clemens are married.
Works
thumb|right|Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare, 1781, Detroit Institute of Arts
thumb|The Sharp Family by Johann Zoffany.
George Barret, Sr. – View of Windermere Lake, Early Morninghttps://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/3765/ View of Windermere Lake, early morning National Gallery of Victoria 15 December 2025
Jacques-Louis David
Belisarius begging for alms
Portrait of Count Stanislas Potocki
Philip James de Loutherbourg – Eidophusikon
Henry Fuseli – The Nightmare
Thomas Gainsborough
Portrait of Mary Robinson
Portrait of Queen Charlotte
Anton Graff – Frederick the Great, King of Prussia
Jean-Antoine Houdon – Portrait busts of Voltaire and Molière
Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun – Juno Borrowing the Belt of Venus
Joshua Reynolds
The Death of Didohttps://www.rct.uk/collection/404696/the-death-of-dido
Thaïs
George, 2nd Earl Harcourt, his wife Elizabeth and his brother William (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)
John Francis Rigaud – Portrait of Horatio Nelson
George Romney
Ann Bowes
The Charteris Children
Dominic Serres – The Moonlight Battle
Gilbert Stuart – Portrait of Benjamin Westhttps://artuk.org/discover/artworks/benjamin-west-pra-202133
François-André Vincent – The Intervention of the Sabine Womenhttps://musees.angers.fr/collections/incontournables/incontournable/48-le-combat-des-romains-et-des-sabins-interrompu-par-les-femmes-sabines-francois-andre-vincent-1746-1816/index.html
Joseph Wright of Derby – Portrait of Sir Brooke Boothby
Johann Zoffany
The Sayer Family of Richmond
The Sharp Family
Births
February 26 – Étienne-Jean Delécluze, French painter and critic (died 1863)
March (probable) – John Burnet, Scottish engraver and painter (died 1868)
March 13 – Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Prussian architect and painter (died 1841)
March 20 – Joseph Paelinck, Belgian painter (died 1839)
April 7 – Francis Leggatt Chantrey, English sculptor of the Georgian era (died 1841)
April 8 – Luke Clennell, English engraver and painter (died 1840)
April 22 – José de Madrazo y Agudo, Spanish Neoclassic painter (died 1859)
July 25 – Merry-Joseph Blondel, French neo-classic painter (died 1853)
October 12 – William Westall, English landscape painter (died 1850)
November 1 – Joseph Stieler, German painter (died 1858)
November 11 – Caroline Bardua, German painter (died 1864)
November 21 – Cornelius Varley, English watercolor painter (died 1873)
date unknown
Thomas Douglas Guest, British portrait painter (died 1845)
Francis Hervé, French-born British painter (died 1850)
probable – John Wesley Jarvis, American painter (died 1839)
Deaths
January 15 – Sir Henry Cheere, 1st Baronet, English sculptor (born 1703)The Burlington Magazine Henry Cheere, Sculptor and Businessman Burlington Magazine Publications, Limited 100 1958 236
February 22 – Giovanni Maria Morlaiter, Italian Rococo sculptor (born 1699)
April 10 – Teodor Kračun, Serbian painter (born 1730)
June 5 – Noël Hallé, French painter, draftsman and printmaker (born 1711)
September 12 – Peter Scheemakers, Flemish Roman Catholic sculptor (born 1691)
September 30 – Jean-Baptiste Le Prince, French etcher and painter (born 1734)
October 22 – Johann August Nahl, German sculptor and stucco artist (born 1710)
November 3 – Jakob Emanuel Handmann, Swiss painter (born 1718)
November 12 – Jean Grandjean, Dutch painter, draftsman, and watercolourist (born 1752)
date unknown
Etienne Aubry, French painter of primarily portraits and genre subjects (born 1746)
Jean-Bernard, abbé Le Blanc, French art critic and director of the official French policy in the arts (born 1707)
Francesco Caccianiga, Italian painter and engraver (born 1700)
Carlo Costanzi, Italian gem engraver of the late-Baroque period (born 1705)
Jacques-Ignace de La Touche, French painter of miniatures and portraits (born 1694)
Ubaldo Gandolfi, Italian painter (born 1728)
References
Category:Years of the 18th century in art
Category:1780s in art