1778 in art
Events from the year 1778 in art.
Events
- 24 April – The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1778 opens at Pall Mall in London
- December – The artistic cargo of the British ship Westmorland, seized by the French, is acquired by Spanish interests.
- Nicholas Pocock gives up his career as a seaman and devotes himself to painting.
Paintings
Image:Watsonandtheshark-original.jpg|thumb|John Singleton Copley – Watson and the Shark- John Singleton Copley – Watson and the Shark
- Thomas Gainsborough
- * Portrait of Philip James de Loutherbourg
- * Portrait of James Christie
- Francisco Goya – Children With a Cart
- William Hodges – Ludlow Castle, Shropshire
- Jean-Antoine Houdon – Portrait busts of Rousseau and Voltaire
- Angelica Kauffman – Zeuxis Selecting Models for His Painting of Helen of Troy
- Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun – Portrait of Joseph Vernet
- David Martin – Dido Elizabeth Belle and Lady Elizabeth Murray
- John Hamilton Mortimer –
- Sir Joshua Reynolds
- * Jane, Countess of Harrington
- * Lady Caroline Howard
- * Captain John Hayes St Leger
- Joshua Reynolds – The Marlborough Family
- George Romney – Jane Gordon, Duchess of Gordon, and Her Son, George Gordon
- Richard Samuel – Portraits in the Characters of the Muses in the Temple of Apollo
- Gilbert Stuart – Self-portrait
- Henry Walton – A Girl Buying a Ballad
- Benjamin West
- * The Battle of the Boyne
- * The Battle of La Hogue
- Johann Zoffany – ''Tribuna of the Uffizi''
Births
- January 1 – Charles Alexandre Lesueur, artist and explorer
- February 22
- * Franz Ludwig Catel, German artist
- * Rembrandt Peale, American artist
- May 31 – John Jackson, English portrait painter
- June 7 – Beau Brummell, leader of fashion
- June 10
- * Cornelis Cels, Belgian painter of portraits and historical subjects
- * Joseph Willibrord Mähler, German portrait painter
- June 15 – Henri Jean-Baptiste Victoire Fradelle, Franco-English painter
- August 4 – Christian Duttenhofer, German engraver
- August 11 – John Christian Schetky, Scottish-born marine painter
- August 17
- * Johannes Hermanus Koekkoek, Dutch painter
- * John Varley, English watercolour painter and astrologer
- * Johannes Hermanus Koekkoek, Dutch painter and draughtsman
- August 31 – Friedrich August von Klinkowström, German artist, author and teacher
- September 1 – Reverend John Thomson, minister of Duddingston Kirk and Landscape artist
- October 5 – John James Masquerier, British portrait artist date unknown
- * Allen Robert Branston, English wood-engraver
- * Wilhelmina Krafft, Swedish painter and portrait miniaturist
- * Nukina Kaioku, Japanese painter and calligrapher
- * Tang Yifen, Chinese landscape painter and calligrapher during the Qing Dynasty
Deaths
- January 4 - Charles-Dominique-Joseph Eisen, French painter and draftsman
- February 19 – Nathan Drake, English painter
- February 24 – Laurent Delvaux, French sculptor
- March – Thomas Roberts, Irish landscape painter
- March 6 – Gaudenzio Botti, Italian painter, mainly active in Brescia
- May 20 – Gaetano Zompini, Italian printmaker and engraver
- May 25 – Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, French sculptor
- September 11 – Johann Sebastian Bach, German painter and grandson of the composer
- September 28 – Jean Girardet, French painter of portrait miniatures
- October 2 – Françoise Duparc, Spanish born Baroque painter who later lived in France
- November 9 – Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian artist
- December 15 - Catherine Read, Scottish portrait-painter
- December 22 – Simon Mathurin Lantara, French landscape painter date unknown
- * John Cobb, English cabinetmaker
- * Ignazio Hugford, or Ignatius Heckford, Florentine painter
- * Wojciech Rojowski, Polish sculptor and woodcarver
- * Pieter Vanderlyn, American colonial painter