1761 in art

Events

• May 9 – Society of Artists of Great Britain's Exhibition of 1761 opens in Spring Gardens, London. Exhibitors include Gainsborough, Hogarth and Nollekens, and Stubbs shows a painting for the first time.
• Salon of 1761 is held at the Louvre in Paris
• Scottish-born artist Allan Ramsay appointed to succeed John Shackelton as Principal Painter in Ordinary to George III of Great Britain.

Works

• François-Hubert Drouais – The children of the comte de Bethune playing the guitar
• Thomas Gainsborough – Portrait of Susannah "Suky" Trevelyan
• William Hogarth – The Five Orders of Perriwigs as they were Worn at the Late Coronation Measured Architectonically
• Anton Raphael Mengs
• * Parnassus
• * Portrait of Charles III of Spain
• Joshua Reynolds
• * David Garrick Between Tragedy and Comedy
• *
• * The Ladies Amabel and Mary Jemima Yorke
• Louis-François Roubiliac – Memorials to Handel and Lady Elizabeth Nightingale in Westminster Abbey
• Richard Wilson
• * Syon House from Richmond Gardens
• * ''The Valley of the Dee, with Chester in the Distance''

Births

• January 24 – Johann Christian Reinhart, German painter and etcher
• January 28 – Marguerite Gérard, French painter and etcher
• March – John Laporte, English landscape painter and etcher
• April 10 – Jacques-Edme Dumont, French sculptor
• May 16 – John Opie, Cornish historical and portrait painter
• June 29 – Jacques Kuyper, Dutch printmaker, painter, draftsman, watercolourist, etcher, musician, and composer
• July 5 – Louis-Léopold Boilly, French painter
• October 11 – Mather Brown, American-born portrait and historical painter
• October 21 – Louis Albert Guislain Bacler d'Albe, French artist, map-maker and close strategic advisor of Napoleon
• September 6 – Marie-Gabrielle Capet, French painter
• November 4 – Bertrand Andrieu, French engraver and medalist
• December 1 – Marie Tussaud, French-born wax modeller of the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum date unknown
• * Jan Frans Eliaerts, Flemish painter of animals, flowers and fruit
• * William Fowler, English artist
• * Charles Hayter, English painter
• * Sakai Hōitsu, Japanese painter of the Rinpa school
• * Zhang Yin, Chinese calligrapher and painter of Qing Dynasty probable – Robert Fagan, Irish painter, diplomat and archaeologist

Deaths

• April 4 – Theodore Gardelle, painter and enameller
• April 30 – Jean Duvivier, French medallist
• July 13 – Claes Lang, Finnish painter
• July 16 – Jacob Fortling, German-Danish sculptor, architect and manufacturer
• July 21 – Louis Galloche, French painter
• August 18 – François Gaspard Adam, French rococo sculptor
• September 7 – Johann Wolfgang Baumgartner, German painter
• December 10 – Johann Georg Platzer, Austrian painter of primarily historical and mythical scenes date unknown
• * August Querfurt, Austrian painter
• * Mary Roberts, miniaturist
• * Pieter Tanjé, engraver from the Northern Netherlands
• * Ivan Vishnyakov, Russian painter