1771 in art explained

Events from the year 1771 in art.

Events

Cristóbal de Aguilar – Manuel de Amat y Junient as Protector of the Monastery of the Nazarene
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin – Self-portrait in spectacles (pastel)
Louis-Bernard Coclers – Interior of a Foundry
John Singleton Copley
- Daniel Crommelin Verplanck (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
- Ezekiel Goldthwait and Mrs. Ezekiel Goldthwait (Elizabeth Lewis) (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Jacques-Louis David – Minerva Fighting Mars (Combat de Mars contre Minerve)
Anton Graff
- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
- Moses Mendelssohn
Jean-Antoine Houdon – Portrait bust of Diderot
John Hamilton Mortimer – Combined portrait of Dr Daniel Solander, Sir Joseph Banks, Captain James Cook, Dr John Hawkesworth and John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich
Alexander Roslin – King Gustav III of Sweden and his Brothers
Claude Joseph Vernet – Clair de lune ("moonlight")
Francis Wheatley – Scene from Twelfth Night
Joseph Wright of Derby^[1]
- The Alchymist, in Search of the Philosopher’s Stone, Discovers Phosphorus, and prays for the successful conclusion of his operation, as was the custom of the Ancient Chymical Astrologers (original version)
- The Blacksmith's Shop (two versions)

March 16 – Antoine-Jean Gros, French painter (died 1835)
April 13 – Jakob Wilhelm Roux, German draughtsman and painter (died 1830)
May 2 – John Henning, Scottish sculptor and medallist (died 1851)
May 14 – Thomas Wedgwood, pioneer photographer (died 1805)
- - November 6 Alois Senefelder, inventor of lithography (died 1834)
- Jovan Pačić, Serbian painter and poet (died 1849)
November 20 – Bartolomeo Pinelli, Italian illustrator and engraver (died 1835)
December 16 – Jean Broc, painter (died 1850)
date unknown
- Nikolai Ivanovich Argunov, painter and academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (died 1829)
- John Heaviside Clark, Scottish aquatint engraver and painter of seascapes and landscapes (died 1863)
- Samuel Elmgren, Finnish painter (died 1834)
- John Eyre, Australian painter and engraver (died 1812)
- William Armfield Hobday, English portrait painter and miniaturist (died 1831)
- Thomas Richmond, English miniature-painter (died 1837)
- Kazimierz Wojniakowski, Polish painter (died 1812)

March 8 – Louis August le Clerc, French-born sculptor (born 1688)
March 20 – Louis-Michel van Loo, French painter (born 1707)
April 14 – Laurent Cars, French designer and engraver (born 1699)
May 11 – Franz Edmund Weirotter, Austrian landscape painter (born 1733)
September 9 – Robert Wood, British engraver gentleman and politician (born 1717)
September 14 – Louis de Moni, Dutch genre painter (born 1698)
date unknown
- John Baker, English flower painter (born 1726)
- George Bickham the Younger, English etcher, engraver, printseller, and one of the first English caricaturists (born 1706)
- Jean Baptiste Claude Chatelain, French engraver (born 1710)
- Charles Exshaw, Irish painter and engraver (born unknown)
- Johan Georg Geitel, Finnish painter (born 1683)
- Ding Guanpeng, Chinese painter in Qing Dynasty (date of birth unknown)
- Giuseppe Marchesi, Italian painter active mainly in Bologna (born 1699)
- Felice Polanzani, Italian engraver (born 1700)
- Johann Preissler, German engraver (born 1698)
- Andrea Soldi, Italian portrait painter working in London (born 1703)
probable – Anton Giuseppe Barbazza, Italian painter and engraver of the Baroque period (born 1720)

Shedding a Light on 18th Century Science: The Works of Joseph Wright of Derby. Maureen. Byko. JOM. 59. 6. 13–17. TMS. 2012-06-28. 10.1007/s11837-007-0070-z. subscription.