1790 in art

Events

• April–May – Josiah Wedgwood shows off his first reproductions of the Portland Vase, in jasperware.
• 28 April – The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1790 opens at Somerset House and is noted for the emergence of the young portrait painter Thomas Lawrence

Works

• William Blake – The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
• Louis-Léopold Boilly
• * The Sorrows of Love
• * Woman Showing Her Portrait
• Mather Brown
• * Portrait of Henry Angelo
• * Portrait of Richard Arkwright
• Giuseppe Cades – The Virgin Mary and Infant Jesus served by the Angels
• Henri-Pierre Danloux – Le supplice d'une vestale
• Johann Heinrich Fussli – Thor Battering the Midgard Serpent
• Gaetano Gandolfi – Joseph's Dream
• Francisco de Goya – El Afilador and Sagrada Familia
• Angelica Kauffman – Venus überredet Helena Paris zu erhören
• Thomas Lawrence – Homer Reciting his Poems
• Philip James de Loutherbourg – Visitor to a Moonlit Churchyard
• Joshua Reynolds – Portrait of Lord Moira
• Henry Singleton – The Storming of the Bastille
• George Stubbs – The Lincolnshire Ox
• Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo – Pulcinella und Saltimbanchi
• John Trumbull – Washington at Verplanck's Point
• J.M.W. Turner – Lambeth Palace
• Joseph Wright of Derby
• * Moonlight, Coast of Tuscany
• * Portrait of Richard Arkwright
• * ''Portrait of Jedediah Strutt''

Births

• January 1 – George Petrie, Irish painter, musician, antiquary and archaeologist
• January 25 – Moritz Michael Daffinger, Austrian miniature painter and sculptor
• January 30 – Carl Gustaf Löwenhielm, Swedish diplomat who made paintings of the countries in which he served
• February 19 – Anton Schimser, Polish sculptor of Austrian origin
• March – Kapiton Zelentsov, Russian painter notable for his book illustrations
• March 14 – Ludwig Emil Grimm, German painter and engraver
• March 28 – William Henry Hunt, English water-color painter
• May 22 - Bianca Milesi, Italian writer, painter, and patriot
• May 23 - James Pradier, Swiss-born French sculptor in the neoclassical style
• June 19 – John Gibson, Welsh-born sculptor
• July 6 – Giuseppe Tominz, Italian-Slovenian portrait painter
• July 18 – John Frazee, first American born sculptor to execute a bust in marble
• September 24 – Robert Trewick Bone, English painter of sacred, classical and genre scenes date unknown
• * Willis Buell, American politician and portrait painter
• * Keisai Eisen, Japanese ukiyo-e artist
• * Henri van der Haert, Belgian portrait painter, sculptor, illustrator and engraver
• * Paweł Maliński, Czech-born sculptor and mason who lived and worked in Poland
• * Edward Villiers Rippingille, English painter
• * Luigi Rossini, Italian artist known for his etchings of ancient Roman architecture

Deaths

• February 20 – Erik Pauelsen, Danish landscape painter
• March 8 – Augustyn Mirys, Polish painter
• March 28 – François-Elie Vincent, Swiss painter of portrait miniatures
• April 29 – Charles-Nicolas Cochin, French engraver, designer, writer, and art critic
• August – Agostino Carlini, Italian sculptor and painter
• September 24 – John Keyse Sherwin, English engraver and painter date unknown:
• * Isoda Koryusai, Japanese printmaker and painter
• * Niccolò Lapiccola, Italian painter