1778 in art
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Events from the year 1778 in art.
Events
- 24 April â The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1778 opens at Pall Mall in London
- December â The artistic cargo of the British ship Westmorland, seized by the French, is acquired by Spanish interests.[1]
- Nicholas Pocock gives up his career as a seaman and devotes himself to painting.
Paintings



- John Singleton Copley â Watson and the Shark
- Thomas Gainsborough
- Francisco Goya â Children With a Cart
- William Hodges â Ludlow Castle, Shropshire
- Jean-Antoine Houdon â Portrait busts of Rousseau and Voltaire
- Angelica Kauffman â Zeuxis Selecting Models for His Painting of Helen of Troy[2]
- Ãlisabeth Vigée Le Brun â Portrait of Joseph Vernet[3]
- David Martin â Dido Elizabeth Belle and Lady Elizabeth Murray[4]
- John Hamilton Mortimer â Sir Arthegal, the Knight of Justice, with Talus, the Iron Man (from Spenserâs âFaerie Queeneâ)
- James Northcote â Portrait of Henry Fuseli[5]
- Joshua Reynolds
- Jane, Countess of Harrington
- Lady Caroline Howard[6]
- Captain John Hayes St Leger
- The Marlborough Family
- Portrait of Mary Monckton[7]
- George Romney â Jane Gordon, Duchess of Gordon, and Her Son, George Gordon
- Richard Samuel â Portraits in the Characters of the Muses in the Temple of Apollo
- Gilbert Stuart â Self-portrait
- Henry Walton â A Girl Buying a Ballad
- Benjamin West
- Johann Zoffany â Tribuna of the Uffizi (completed)
Births
- January 1 â Charles Alexandre Lesueur, artist and explorer (died 1846)
- February 22
- Franz Ludwig Catel, German artist (died 1856)[8]
- Rembrandt Peale, American artist (died 1860)[9]
- May 31 â John Jackson, English portrait painter (died 1831)[10]
- June 7 â Beau Brummell, leader of fashion (died 1840)
- June 10
- Cornelis Cels, Belgian painter of portraits and historical subjects (died 1859)[11]
- Joseph Willibrord Mähler, German portrait painter (died 1860)[12]
- June 15 â Henri Jean-Baptiste Victoire Fradelle, Franco-English painter (died 1865)
- August 4 â Christian Duttenhofer, German engraver (died 1843)
- August 11 â 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)[13]
- Johannes Hermanus Koekkoek, Dutch painter and draughtsman (died 1851)
- August 31 â Friedrich August von Klinkowström, German artist, author and teacher (died 1835)
- September 1 â Reverend John Thomson, minister of Duddingston Kirk and Landscape artist (died 1840)[14]
- October 5 â John James Masquerier, British portrait artist (died 1855)
- date unknown
- Allen Robert Branston, English wood-engraver (died 1827)[15]
- 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 â Nathan Drake, English painter (born c.1728)
- February 24 â Laurent Delvaux, French sculptor (born 1696)
- March â Thomas Roberts, Irish landscape painter (born 1748)
- March 6 â Gaudenzio Botti, Italian painter, mainly active in Brescia (born 1698)
- May 20 â Gaetano Zompini, Italian printmaker and engraver (born 1700)
- May 25 â Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, French sculptor (born 1704)
- September 11 â Johann Sebastian Bach, German painter and grandson of the composer (born 1748)
- September 28 â Jean Girardet, French painter of portrait miniatures (born 1709)[16]
- October 2 â Françoise Duparc, Spanish born Baroque painter who later lived in France (born 1726)
- November 9 â Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian artist (born 1720)[17]
- December 15 - Catherine Read, Scottish portrait-painter (born 1723)
- December 22 â Simon Mathurin Lantara, French landscape painter (born 1729)
- date unknown
- John Cobb, English cabinetmaker (born 1710)[18]
- Ignazio Hugford, or Ignatius Heckford, Florentine painter (born 1703)[19]
- Wojciech Rojowski, Polish sculptor and woodcarver (born unknown)
- Pieter Vanderlyn, American colonial painter (born 1687)[20]