1783 in art

Events

• Thomas Gainsborough exhibits a set of 15 portraits of King George III of Great Britain and the royal family at the Royal Academy summer exhibition in London.

Works

Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Portrait of Marie Antoinette, the "muslin" portrait

• John Singleton Copley
  • The Death of Major Peirson, 6 January 1781
  • The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782
• Thomas Gainsborough – Her Grace Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire
• Thomas Jones – A Storm – Prospero, Miranda and Caliban Spying the Shipwrecked Ferdinand
• Joseph Lange – Unfinished portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, his brother-in-law
• Sir Joshua Reynolds – Admiral Hood
• Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes – At the Villa Farnèse – Two Poplars
• Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun – Portrait of Marie Antoinette
• Thomas Whitcombe – The Battle of the Saintes, 12th April 1782: surrender of the Ville de Paris

Births

• January 2 – Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, Danish painter (died 1853)
• January 4 - Aleksander Lauréus, Finnish painter (died 1823)
• February 10 – Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy, Russian painter, engraver and silhouettist (died 1873)
• March 25 – Jean-Baptiste Paulin Guérin, French painter (died 1855)
• April 5 - Andrew Geddes, British painter (died 1844)
• April 29 – David Cox, English landscape painter (died 1859)
• May 29 – Benedetto Pistrucci, engraver (died 1855)
• June 19 – Thomas Sully, portrait painter (died 1872)
• September 17 – Samuel Prout, English water-colour painter (died 1852)
• October 4 - Jens Peter Møller, Danish painter (died 1854)
• December 14 – Alexandre-François Caminade, French portraitist and a religion painter (died 1862)
• date unknown
  • Claude Victor de Boissieu, French artist and local politician (died 1868)
  • Maria Johanna Görtz, Swedish still life artist (died 1853)
  • Alexander Johann Dallinger von Dalling, Austrian painter (died 1844)
  • Yi Jaegwan, Korean genre works painter in the late Joseon period (died 1837)

Deaths

• April 12 - Johann Melchior Kambly, Swiss sculptor who took part in the development of the architectural style of Frederician Rococo (born 1718)
• May 26 - Anna Maria Hilfeling, Swedish portrait miniaturist artist (born 1713)
• July 8 - Johann Jakob Zeiller, Austrian fresco painter (born 1708)
• August 4 - Johannes Rach, Danish painter and draughtsman (born 1720)
• August 19 – Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, German sculptor most famous for his collection of busts of faces contorted in extreme facial expressions (born 1736)
• August 29 – William Wynne Ryland, English engraver (born 1738)
• November 19 – Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, French painter who specialized in portraits executed in pastels (born 1715)
• date unknown
  • Matthijs Accama, Dutch historical and emblematical subjects painter (born 1702)
  • George Michael Moser, Swiss-born enameller (born 1706)
  • Violante Beatrice Siries, Italian painter (born 1709)