1781 in art

	… 1771; 1772; 1773; 1774; 1775; 1776; 1777; ; 1778; 1779; 1780; 1781; 1782; 1783; 1784; ; 1785; 1786; 1787; 1788; 1789; 1790; 1791 …;
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Events from the year 1781 in art.

Events[]

George Barret, Sr. – View of Windermere Lake, Early Morning
Jacques-Louis David – Belisarius begging for alms
Philip James de Loutherbourg – Eidophusikon
Henry Fuseli – The Nightmare
Thomas Gainsborough – Mrs Robinson as Perdita
Anton Graff – Frederick the Great, King of Prussia
Jean-Antoine Houdon – Portrait busts of Voltaire and Molière
Sir Joshua Reynolds
- Emily Potts as Thaïs (Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire)
- George, 2nd Earl Harcourt, his wife Elizabeth and his brother William (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)
George Romney
- Ann Bowes
- The Charteris Children
Joseph Wright of Derby – Sir Brooke Boothby

March (probable) – John Burnet, Scottish engraver and painter (died 1868)
March 13 – Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Prussian architect and painter (died 1841)
March 20 – Joseph Paelinck, Belgian painter (died 1839)
April 7 – Francis Leggatt Chantrey, English sculptor of the Georgian era (died 1841)
April 8 – Luke Clennell, English engraver and painter (died 1840)
April 22 – José de Madrazo y Agudo, Spanish Neoclassic painter (died 1859)
July 25 – Merry-Joseph Blondel, French neo-classic painter (died 1853)
October 12 – William Westall, English landscape painter (died 1850)
November 1 – Joseph Stieler, German painter (died 1858)
November 11 – Caroline Bardua, German painter (died 1864)
November 21 – Cornelius Varley, English watercolor painter (died 1873)
date unknown
- Étienne-Jean Delécluze, French painter and critic (died 1863)
- Thomas Douglas Guest, British portrait painter (died 1845)
- Francis Hervé, French-born British painter (died 1850)
- Kikuchi Yōsai – Japanese painter most famous for his monochrome portraits of historical figures (died 1878)
probable – John Wesley Jarvis, American painter (died 1839)

January 15 – Sir Henry Cheere, 1st Baronet, English sculptor (born 1703)
February 22 – Giovanni Maria Morlaiter, Italian Rococo sculptor (born 1699)
March 2 – Francisco Salzillo, Spanish sculptor (born 1707)
April 10 – Teodor Kračun, Serbian painter (born 1730)
June 5 – Noël Hallé, French painter, draftsman and printmaker (born 1711)
September 12 – Peter Scheemakers, Flemish Roman Catholic sculptor (born 1691)
September 30 – Jean-Baptiste Le Prince, French etcher and painter (born 1734)
October 22 – Johann August Nahl, German sculptor and stucco artist (born 1710)
November 3 – Jakob Emanuel Handmann, Swiss painter (born 1718)
November 12 – Jean Grandjean, Dutch painter, draftsman, and watercolourist (born 1752)
date unknown
- Etienne Aubry, French painter of primarily portraits and genre subjects (born 1746)
- Jean-Bernard, abbé Le Blanc, French art critic and director of the official French policy in the arts (born 1707)
- Francesco Caccianiga, Italian painter and engraver (born 1700)
- Carlo Costanzi, Italian gem engraver of the late-Baroque period (born 1705)
- Jacques-Ignace de La Touche, French painter of miniatures and portraits (born 1694)
- Ubaldo Gandolfi, Italian painter (born 1728)