1768 in art

Events

• December 10 – Royal Academy founded in London, with Joshua Reynolds as its first President.
• Tilly Kettle becomes the first English painter to work in India.

Works

• Pompeo Batoni – Portrait of the Duke of Devonshire
• John Singleton Copley – Portrait of Thomas Gage
• Francis Cotes – The Young Cricketer
• Thomas Gainsborough
• *Elizabeth and Thomas Linley
• *Ignatius Sancho
• Sir Joshua Reynolds
• *
• * Portrait of the Marquess of Rockingham
• Alexander Roslin – The Lady with the Veil
• Jacques Saly – Frederik V on Horseback
• Dominic Serres – The Captured Spanish Fleet at Havana
• Benjamin West – French Officer from the Tomahawk of a North American Indian">France">French Officer from the Tomahawk of a North American Indian
• Joseph Wright of Derby – An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump
• Johan Zoffany
• * Charles Macklin as Shylock
• * ''The Porter and the Hare''

Births

• March 2 – Benjamin Duterrau, English painter, etcher, engraver, sculptor and art lecturer
• March 10 – Domingos Sequeira, Portuguese painter
• March 19 – François Joseph Bosio, French sculptor
• April 18 – Jean-Baptiste Debret, French painter of lithographs depicting the people of Brazil
• May 5 – Ezra Ames, American portrait painter
• June 29 – Vincenzo Dimech, Maltese sculptor
• July 10 – Hendrik Voogd, Dutch painter and printmaker, who was active in Italy
• July 27 – Joseph Anton Koch, Austrian painter of the German Romantic movement
• August 22 – Josef Abel, historical painter and etcher
• December 18 – Marie-Guillemine Benoist, French neoclassical, historical and genre painter
• December 22 – John Crome, English artist in the Romantic era date unknown
• * Pierre Audouin, French engraver
• * Juliane Wilhelmine Bause, German landscape etcher
• * Andrey Yefimovich Martynov, Russian painter and engraver
• * Charlotta Malm-Reuterholm, Finnish painter
• * Vasily Rodchev, Russian history painter
• * Peter Edward Stroehling, portrait artist from either Germany or the Russian Empire
• * Elkanah Tisdale, American engraver, miniature painter and cartoonist

Deaths

• January 26 – Tibout Regters, Dutch portrait painter
• April 10 – Giovanni Antonio Canal, better known as Canaletto, Venetian artist famous for his landscapes, or vedute, of Venice
• April 14 – Francesco Monti, Italian fresco painter
• April 24 – Johann Valentin Tischbein, German theatre painter
• April 29 – Filippo della Valle, Italian sculptor
• June 11 – Stefano Pozzi, Italian painter, designer, draughtsman and decorator
• August 18 – Giovanni Domenico Ferretti, Italian Rococo painter from Florence
• August 24 – Isaac Basire, English engraver and head of family of engravers
• November 5 – Giorgio Duranti, Italian painter of still lifes
• December 8 – Jean Denis Attiret, French Jesuit missionary and painter date unknown
• * Johan Backman, Finnish painter
• * Antonio Baldi, Italian painter and engraver
• * Miguel Cabrera, indigenous Zapotec painter,
• * Samuel Collins, British miniature painter
• * Giovanni Domenico Campiglia, Italian painter and engraver from Florence
• * Charles Cressent, French furniture-maker, sculptor and fondeur-ciseleur of the régence style