1787 in art

Events from the year 1787 in art.

Events

 * Seventeen-year-old Thomas Lawrence arrives in London and takes lodgings near Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Works

 * Antonio Canova - Tomb of Pope Clement XIV
 * Jacques-Louis David – The Death of Socrates (completed)
 * Thomas Gainsborough
 * Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire
 * Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan
 * Francisco Goya
 * Highwaymen Attacking a Coach
 * The Snowstorm (Winter)
 * The Swing
 * Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun – Marie Antoinette and her Children (completed)
 * Jacques-Antoine-Marie Lemoine – Portrait of a Woman with Her Son and Daughter in a Balcony Window
 * George Romney – Mrs Jordan as Peggy
 * Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein – Goethe in the Campagna

Awards

 * (unknown)

Births

 * January 7 – Patrick Nasmyth, Scottish landscape painter (died 1831)
 * February 3 – Karl Joseph Brodtmann, Swiss artist, lithographer, printmaker, publisher and bookseller (died 1862)
 * March 10 – William Etty, English painter, especially of nudes (died 1849)
 * April 9 – William Finden, English line engraver (died 1852)
 * August 17 – Maxim Vorobiev, Russian Romantic landscape painter (died 1855)
 * August 20 – Jean-Pierre Cortot, French sculptor (died 1843)
 * September 11 – Karl Wilhelm Wach, German painter (died 1845)
 * September 18 – Johann David Passavant, German painter, curator and artist (died 1861)
 * October 2 – Nicolas Gosse, French historical painter (died 1878)
 * October 13 – William Brockedon, English painter (died 1854)
 * November 18 – Louis Daguerre, French artist and chemist, recognized for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography (died 1851)
 * November 22 – Copley Fielding, English watercolour landscape painter (died 1855)
 * December 16 – François Joseph Heim, French painter (died 1865)
 * date unknown
 * Heinrich Adam, German painter (died 1862)
 * Giuseppe Bisi, Italian painter, mainly of landscapes (died 1869)
 * Johannes Flintoe, Danish-Norwegian painter of Norwegian landscapes (died 1870)
 * Harriet Gouldsmith, English landscape painter and etcher (died 1863)
 * François-Joseph Navez, Belgian neo-classical painter (died 1869)
 * Xavier Sigalon, French Romantic painter (died 1837)

Deaths

 * February 4 – Pompeo Batoni, Italian painter (born 1708)
 * March 17 – Anton August Beck, German engraver (born 1713)
 * June 23 – Pierre L'Enfant, French painter (born 1704)
 * July 25 – Arthur Devis – English portrait painter, particularly known for his conversation pieces and other such small portraits (born 1712)
 * September 5 – John Brown, Scottish portrait-draftsman and painter at Edinburgh (born 1749)
 * November 10 – Cristoforo Dall'Acqua, Italian painter and engraver (born 1734)
 * December 12 – Jean Valade, French painter (born 1710)
 * date unknown
 * Mason Chamberlin, English portrait painter (born 1727)
 * John Cheere, English sculptor (born 1709)
 * Nicolas Desportes, French painter of hunting scenes (born 1718)
 * Erik Westzynthius the Younger, Finnish painter (born 1743)
 * Francesco Zugno, Italian Rococo painter (born c. 1708)
 * probable - Thomas Engleheart, English sculptor and modeller in wax (date of birth unknown)