1786 in art

Events

November – Boydell Shakespeare Gallery inaugurated in London.

Francisco Goya is appointed court painter to King Charles III of Spain.

Works

Mather Brown – Portraits of Thomas Jefferson and Charles Bulfinch

Thomas Gainsborough – Lavinia (The Milk Maid)

Ozias Humphry – Portrait of Hyder Beg Khan

Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun

Mademoiselle Sophie

Self-portrait in a Turban with Julie

Jean-Laurent Mosnier – Self-portrait

Joshua Reynolds

Admiral Sir Edward Hughes

Dr. John Hunter seated in his museum

John Trumbull – The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec, December 31, 1775

Johann Zoffany – Colonel Antoine Polier, Claud Martin and John Wombwell with the Artist

Births

January 26 – Benjamin Haydon, English historical painter and writer (suicide 1846)

April 1 – William Mulready, Irish genre painter of rural scenes (died 1863)

April 16 – Albrecht Adam, painter (died 1862)

June 3 – Kim Jeong-hui, calligrapher, epigraphist, and scholar of Korea's later Joseon period (died 1856)

July 5 – Charles Alfred Stothard, historical draughtsman (died 1821)

July 9 – Rudolph Schadow, German sculptor (died 1822)

August 8 – Bengt Erland Fogelberg, Swedish sculptor (died 1854)

August 28 – Ferdinand Piloty, lithographer (died 1844)

September 28 – Johann Michael Sattler, Austrian portrait and landscape painter (died 1847)

October 10 – François-Édouard Picot, French historic painter (died 1868)

November 23 – František Tkadlík, Czech painter (died 1840)

date unknown

Julien-Honoré-Germain d'Aubuisson, French portrait and miniature painter (died 1860)

Georgije Bakalović, Serbian painter (died 1843)

Eugénie Honorée Marguerite Charen, French painter (died 1824)

Jean Augustin Daiwaille, Dutch portrait painter (died 1850)

William Derby, English miniature painter and copyist (died 1847)

John Fischer, German portrait, miniature, and landscape painter (died 1875)

James Frothingham, American painter (died 1864)

Kunisada, Japanese designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints (died 1865)

Abraham Wivell, British portrait painter, writer and pioneer of fire protection (died 1849)

probable

John Hayes, British portrait-painter (died 1866)

Deaths

January 8 – Johan Edvard Mandelberg, Swedish-born painter (born 1730)

January 12 – Claude-Henri Watelet, French fermier-général, amateur painter and writer on the arts (born 1718)

February 17 – Thomas Beckwith, English painter, genealogist and antiquary (born 1731)

March 6 – Charles Germain de Saint Aubin, draftsman and embroidery designer to King Louis XV of France (born 1721)

March 18 – Jacob Bonneau, Anglo-French painter (date of birth unknown)

April 12 – Francesco Saverio Mergalo, Italian portrait painter (born 1746)

April 23 – Alexander Cozens, British landscape-painter in water-colours and teacher of painting (born 1717)

May 4 – Johann Kaspar Füssli, Swiss painter (born 1743)

June 21 – George Hepplewhite, English furniture designer (born 1727?)

July 14 – John Collier, English caricaturist and satirist (born 1708)

October 17 – Johann Ludwig Aberli, Swiss landscape painter and etcher (born 1723)

October 30 – William Duesbury, British enameller and entrepreneur (born 1725)

date unknown

Andrea-Salvatore Aglio, Italian sculptor and painter on marble (born 1736)

Johann Karl Auerbach, Austrian painter (born 1723)

Tilly Kettle, portrait painter (born 1735)

Samuel Wale, English historical painter and book illustrator (born unknown)