1788 in art

Events from the year 1788 in art.

Events

 * Étienne Maurice Falconet becomes director of the Académie des beaux-arts.

Works

 * Thomas Barrett – Charlotte Medal
 * James Barry – King Lear Weeping over the Dead Body of Cordelia (1786–88)
 * Jacques-Louis David – Portrait of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and his Wife
 * Marguerite Gérard – First Steps (approximate date)
 * Francisco Goya
 * Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga ("Red Boy", 1787–88)
 * The Meadow of San Isidro
 * St. Francis of Borja Attending a Dying Man
 * Anton Graff – Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin
 * Guillaume Guillon-Lethière - Brutus Condemning His Sons to Death
 * Sir Joshua Reynolds
 * The Age of Innocence (probable date)
 * Lord Heathfield
 * Johann Zoffany – Colonel Mordaunt's Cock Match

Births

 * February 5 – Sarah Goodridge, American painter who specialized in miniatures (died 1853)
 * February 24 – Johan Christian Dahl, Norwegian landscape painter (died 1857)
 * February 29 – Catharine Hermine Kølle, Norwegian adventurer and painter (died 1859)
 * March 12 – Pierre Jean David, sculptor and engraver ("David d'Angers") (died 1856)
 * April 5 – Franz Pforr, painter (died 1812)
 * April 18 – Charles de Steuben, French painter active during the Napoleonic Era (died 1856)
 * April 20 – Emma Körner, German painter (died 1815)
 * April 24 – Ammi Phillips, American painter (died 1865)
 * June 18 - Ernesta Legnani Bisi, Italian painter and engraver (died 1859)
 * September 8 – William Collins, English landscape and genre painter (died 1847)
 * August 6 – Felix Slade, founder of the Slade School of Art (died 1868)
 * November 4 – Jacques-Édouard Gatteaux, French sculptor and medal engraver (died 1881)
 * November 28 – Kikuchi Yōsai – Japanese painter most famous for his monochrome portraits of historical figures (died 1878)
 * date unknown
 * Michele Bisi, Italian engraver and painter (date of death unknown)
 * Albertus Jonas Brandt, Dutch still-life painter (died 1821)
 * Martin Cregan, Irish portrait painter (died 1870)
 * John Watson Gordon, painter (died 1864)
 * Michael Hanhart, British lithographer and chromolithographer (died 1865)
 * Mary Harrison, English flower and fruit painter, and illustrator (died 1875)
 * Emma Eleonora Kendrick, British miniature painter (died 1871)
 * Paolo Toschi, Italian draughtsman and engraver (died 1854)
 * William Edward West, American portrait painter (died 1859)

Deaths

 * February 13 – Josef Jáchym Redelmayer, Czech painter, fresco painter and theater decorator (born 1727)
 * February 17 – Maurice Quentin de La Tour, French Rococo portraitist who worked primarily with pastels (born 1704)
 * March 2 – Solomon Gessner, Swiss painter and poet (born 1730)
 * May 29 – Jacques Aliamet, French engraver (born 1726)
 * July 15 – Jean Germain Drouais, French historical painter (born 1763)
 * August 2 – Thomas Gainsborough, English portrait painter (born 1727)
 * September 27 – Sir Robert Taylor, stonemason, sculptor, and architect (born 1714)
 * September 30 – Matthäus Günther, German painter and artist of the Baroque and Rococo era (born 1705)
 * December 30 – Francesco Zuccarelli, Italian Rococo painter, elected in 1763 to the Venetian Academy of Fine Arts (born 1702)
 * date unknown
 * Fabio Berardi, Italian engraver (born 1728)
 * Joseph Bergler the Elder, Austrian sculptor (born 1718)
 * Carlo Bonavia, Italian veduta painter (date of birth unknown)
 * Gaspard Duché de Vancy, French painter and drawer (born 1756)
 * George Farington, English artist (born 1752)
 * Toriyama Sekien, scholar and ukiyo-e artist of Japanese folklore (born 1712)
 * François-Gaspard Teuné, French ébéniste (cabinet-maker) (born 1726)
 * Min Zhen, Chinese painter and seal carver born in Nanchang in Jiangxi (born 1730)