1778 in art
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{{Year nav topic5|1778|art}}
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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.{{Cite news |last=Griñán |first=F |date=September 2024 |title=Treasures from British ship return to Malaga after more than 200 years |url=https://www.surinenglish.com/lifestyle/treasures-from-british-ship-return-malaga-after-20240913120017-nt.html |access-date=24 December 2024}}
- Nicholas Pocock gives up his career as a seaman and devotes himself to painting.
Paintings
Image:Watsonandtheshark-original.jpg – Watson and the Shark]]
File:Portraits in the Characters of the Muses in the Temple of Apollo by Richard Samuel.jpg – Portraits in the Characters of the Muses in the Temple of Apollo.]]
File:Benjamin West, The Battle of La Hogue, c. 1778, NGA 45885.jpg – The Battle of La Hogue.]]
- 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
- Jean-Antoine Houdon – Portrait busts of Rousseau and Voltaire
- Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun – Portrait of Joseph Vernet{{cite book|author=Gita May|title=Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun: The Odyssey of an Artist in an Age of Revolution|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2008|isbn=9780300130003|page=87}}
- David Martin – Dido Elizabeth Belle and Lady Elizabeth Murray{{Cite news |last=Jeffries |first=Stuart |date=2014-05-27 |title=Dido Belle: the artworld enigma who inspired a movie |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/may/27/dido-belle-enigmatic-painting-that-inspired-a-movie |access-date=13 December 2024|work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}
- John Hamilton Mortimer – [http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mortimer-sir-arthegal-the-knight-of-justice-with-talus-the-iron-man-from-spensers-faerie-t02057 Sir Arthegal, the Knight of Justice, with Talus, the Iron Man (from Spenser’s ‘Faerie Queene’)]
- Sir Joshua Reynolds
- Jane, Countess of Harrington
- Lady Caroline Howard{{cite web|url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.113.html|title=Lady Caroline Howard|website=National Gallery of Art|access-date=13 February 2025}}
- 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 (completed)
Births
- January 1 – Charles Alexandre Lesueur, artist and explorer (died 1846)
- February 22
- Franz Ludwig Catel, German artist (died 1856){{cite book|author1=John Denison Champlin|author2=Charles Callahan Perkins|title=Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UdJHAQAAIAAJ|year=1913|publisher=C. Scribner's sons|page=254}}
- Rembrandt Peale, American artist (died 1860){{cite book|author1=Carol Eaton Hevner|author2=Rembrandt Peale|title=Rembrandt Peale, 1778-1860, a Life in the Arts: An Exhibition at The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, February 22, 1985 to June 28, 1985|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4RRIAQAAIAAJ|year=1985|publisher=Historical Society of Pennsylvania|isbn=978-0-910732-19-2|page=12}}
- May 31 – John Jackson, English portrait painter (died 1831){{cite book|author=Allan Cunningham|title=The Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jLYaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA107|year=1880|publisher=George Bell|pages=107}}
- June 7 – Beau Brummell, leader of fashion (died 1840)
- June 10
- Cornelis Cels, Belgian painter of portraits and historical subjects (died 1859){{cite book|author=John Denison Champlin|title=Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WvROAQAAMAAJ|year=1927|publisher=Empire State Book Company|page=262}}
- Joseph Willibrord Mähler, German portrait painter (died 1860){{ÖBL|5|404|404|Mähler, Joseph Willibrord|Wacha}} {{in lang|de}}
- June 15 – Henri Jean-Baptiste Victoire Fradelle, Franco-English painter (died 1865)
- August 4 – Christian Duttenhofer, German engraver (died 1843)
- August 11 – John Christian Schetky, Scottish-born marine painter (died 1874)
- August 17
- Johannes Hermanus Koekkoek, Dutch painter (died 1851)
- John Varley, English watercolour painter and astrologer (died 1842){{cite book|author1=Claus Michael Kauffmann|author2=John Varley|title=John Varley, 1778-1842|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TOWOAAAAIAAJ|year=1984|publisher=B.T. Batsford|isbn=978-0-7134-3402-6|page=11}}
- Johannes Hermanus Koekkoek, Dutch painter and draughtsman (died 1851)
- August 31 – Friedrich August von Klinkowström, German artist, author and teacher (died 1835)
- September 1 – Reverend John Thomson, minister of Duddingston Kirk and Landscape artist (died 1840){{cite book|author=Philip Gilbert Hamerton|title=The Portfolio: An Artistic Periodical|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6C0cAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA70|year=1887|publisher=Seeley|pages=70}}
- October 5 – John James Masquerier, British portrait artist (died 1855)
- date unknown
- Allen Robert Branston, English wood-engraver (died 1827){{cite book|author=Samuel Redgrave|title=A Dictionary of Artists of the English School: Painters, Sculptors, Architects, Engravers and Ornamentists|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vb1fAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA51|year=1874|publisher=Longmans, Green and Company|pages=51}}
- Wilhelmina Krafft, Swedish painter and portrait miniaturist (died 1828)
- Nukina Kaioku, Japanese painter and calligrapher (died 1863)
- Tang Yifen, Chinese landscape painter and calligrapher during the Qing Dynasty (died 1853)
Deaths
- January 4 - Charles-Dominique-Joseph Eisen, French painter and draftsman (born 1720)
- February 19 – Nathan Drake, English painter (born c.1728)
- February 24 – Laurent Delvaux, French sculptor (born 1696)
- March – Thomas Roberts, Irish landscape painter (born 1748)
- March 6 – Gaudenzio Botti, Italian painter, mainly active in Brescia (born 1698)
- May 20 – Gaetano Zompini, Italian printmaker and engraver (born 1700)
- May 25 – Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, French sculptor (born 1704)
- September 11 – Johann Sebastian Bach, German painter and grandson of the composer (born 1748)
- September 28 – Jean Girardet, French painter of portrait miniatures (born 1709){{cite book|author1=Adolf K. Placzek|author2=Angela Giral|title=Avery's Choice: Five Centuries of Great Architectural Books : One Hundred Years of an Architectural Library, 1890-1990|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aR9UAAAAMAAJ|year=1997|publisher=G.K. Hall|page=80}}
- October 2 – Françoise Duparc, Spanish born Baroque painter who later lived in France (born 1726)
- November 9 – Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian artist (born 1720){{cite book|author=Benjamin Burges Moore|title=Giovanni Battista Piranesi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vL3wuqjo5ZEC|year=1962|page=26}}
- December 15 - Catherine Read, Scottish portrait-painter (born 1723)
- December 22 – Simon Mathurin Lantara, French landscape painter (born 1729)
- date unknown
- John Cobb, English cabinetmaker (born 1710){{cite book|title=The Illustrated London News|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1aUcAQAAMAAJ|year=1959|publisher=William Little|page=19}}
- Ignazio Hugford, or Ignatius Heckford, Florentine painter (born 1703){{cite book|author1=Leslie Stephen|author2=Sir Sidney Lee|title=DNB|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EWVIAAAAYAAJ|year=1891|publisher=Smith, Elder, & Company|page=157}}
- Wojciech Rojowski, Polish sculptor and woodcarver (born unknown)
- Pieter Vanderlyn, American colonial painter (born 1687){{cite book|title=Antiques|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dig7AQAAIAAJ|year=1959|publisher=Straight Enterprises|page=546}}