1781 in art

Events from the year 1781 in art.

Events

 * August 27 – Danish artists Marie Jeanne Crevoisier and Johan Frederik Clemens are married.

Works

 * George Barret, Sr. – View of Windermere Lake, Early Morning
 * Jacques-Louis David
 * Belisarius begging for alms
 * Portrait of Count Stanislas Potocki
 * Philip James de Loutherbourg – Eidophusikon
 * Henry Fuseli – The Nightmare
 * Thomas Gainsborough – Mrs Robinson as Perdita
 * Anton Graff – Frederick the Great, King of Prussia
 * Jean-Antoine Houdon – Portrait busts of Voltaire and Molière
 * Sir Joshua Reynolds
 * Emily Potts as Thaïs (Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire)
 * George, 2nd Earl Harcourt, his wife Elizabeth and his brother William (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)
 * George Romney
 * Ann Bowes
 * The Charteris Children
 * Joseph Wright of Derby – Sir Brooke Boothby

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)
 * February 22 – Giovanni Maria Morlaiter, Italian Rococo sculptor (born 1699)
 * March 2 – Francisco Salzillo, Spanish sculptor (born 1707)
 * 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)