1785 in art
Events from the year 1785 in art.
Events
- 27 April – The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1785 opens at Somerset House in London
- April Joseph Wright of Derby holds a one-man exhibition in Covent Garden in London, having severed his official connection with the Royal Academy
- 25 August – The Salon of 1785 opens at the Louvre in Paris
Works
- Lemuel Francis Abbott – Portrait of William Herschel
- Nicolas Benjamin Delapierre – Portrait of a Seated Gentleman
- Joseph Duplessis – Portrait of Benjamin Franklin
- Thomas Gainsborough
- *'
- *Portrait of Sarah Siddons
- Anton Graff – Self-portrait with his family
- Hugh Douglas Hamilton – Lord Edward Stuart
- Jean-Antoine Houdon – Portrait bust of George Washington
- Adélaïde Labille-Guiard – Self-portrait with two pupils
- Jacques-Antoine-Marie Lemoine – Portrait of Zamor
- Isidro Lorea – Main altarpiece of Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral
- Philip James de Loutherbourg – A View near Matlock, Derbyshire
- Joshua Reynolds –
- * Portrait of James Boswell
- *'
- *'
- George Romney – At least two portraits of Emma Hart
- Alexander Roslin – Self Portrait while Painting the King of Sweden
- Gilbert Stuart
- * Portrait of Benjamin West
- * Portrait of Isaac Barré
- George Stubbs – Haymakers and '
- Joseph Wright of Derby – ''The Lady in Milton's Comus''
Births
- January 8 – Jan Baptiste de Jonghe, Belgian landscape painter
- April 26 – John James Audubon, Haitian-born American naturalist and painter
- September 1 – José Gil de Castro, Afro-Peruvian painter especially of portraits of Peru's heroes
- September 26 – Charles Bird King, American portrait artist who notably paints Native American delegates visiting Washington, D.C.
- October 12 – Henry Thomas Alken, English engraver, illustrator and sporting artist
- October 31 – Georg Friedrich Kersting, German painter of Biedermeier-style interior paintings
- November 18 – David Wilkie, Scottish painter and engraver
- December 1 – Abraham Constantin, Swiss enamel painter
- December 23 – Christian Gobrecht, American engraver
- December 30 – Edouard Pingret, French painter and lithographer
- date unknown
- *Pál Balkay, Hungarian painter and teacher
- *Daniel Havell, English engraver
- *Ignatius Josephus van Regemorter, Flemish historical, landscape and genre painter and engraver
- probable – Bernardo Consorti, Italian line-engraver
Deaths
- January 2 – Andrés de la Calleja, Spanish painter
- April 13 – Michel-François Dandré-Bardon, French historical painter and etcher
- May 8 – Pietro Longhi, Venetian painter
- August 20 – Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, French sculptor
- October 4 – Alexander Runciman, Scottish painter
- October 19 – Hugues Taraval, French painter
- December 14 – Giovanni Battista Cipriani, Italian painter and engraver date unknown
- * John Hodges Benwell, English genre painter
- * Johannes de Bosch, Dutch painter, engraver and draughtsman
- * William Cochran, Scottish painter
- * Pietro Gaspari, Italian artist, known for veduta and capriccio in etchings and paintings
- * Jacques Fabien Gautier d'Agoty, French painter and printmaker
- * Jean-Baptiste Le Paon, French battle scene painter
- * José Luzán, Spanish Baroque painter
- * Krzysztof Perwanger, Polish sculptor and mayor