Events from the year 1776 in art.

Events

• John Robert Cozens sets out on a three-year tour of Switzerland and Italy.

Works

• Pompeo Batoni – General William Gordon of Fyvie
• Nathaniel Dance-Holland – The Dashwoods at West Wycombe Park
• Jean-Honoré Fragonard – A Young Girl Reading (approximate date)
• Thomas Gainsborough – Portrait of Johann Christian Bach
• Tilly Kettle – The ceremony of a gentoo woman taking leave of her relations and distributing her jewels prior to ascending the funeral pyre of her deceased husband
• Anton Raphael Mengs – Self-portrait
• Sir Joshua Reynolds – Huang Ya Dong ('Wang-Y-Tong')

Births

• February 16 – Abraham Raimbach, English engraver (died 1843)
• March 30 – Vasily Andreevich Tropinin, Russian painter (died 1857)
• April 2 – John Higton, English animal painter (died 1827)
• April 13 – Félix Boisselier, French historical painter (died 1811)
• June 11 – John Constable, English romantic landscape painter (died 1837)
• June 12 – Pierre Révoil, French painter (died 1842)
• June 29 – František Horčička, Czech history and portrait painter (died 1856)
• August 9 – Jacob Munch, Norwegian painter and military officer (died 1839)
• August 14 – Christian Friedrich Tieck, German sculptor (died 1851)
• August 15 – Gottlieb Schick, German Neoclassical portrait painter (died 1812)
• August 16 – Amalia von Helvig, German and Swedish artist, writer, translator and intellectual (died 1831)
• October 8 – Pieter van Os, Dutch painter and engraver (died 1839)
• October 18 – John Vanderlyn, American Neoclassical painter (died 1852)
• November 5 – Abraham Teerlink, Dutch painter (died 1857)
• December 26 – Charles Hamilton Smith, Flemish-born English illustrator and soldier (died 1859)
• date unknown
  • Élise Bruyère, French painter specializing in portraits and floral still lifes (died 1847)
  • Alexei Yegorov, Russian painter (died 1861)
  • Jan Mooy, Dutch marine art painter (died 1847)
  • Carlo Restallino, Italian painter and engraver (died 1864)
  • Gustava Johanna Stenborg, Swedish textile artist (died 1819)

Deaths

• February 2 – Francis Hayman, painter and illustrator (born 1708)
• March 4 - Johann Georg Ziesenis, German-Danish portrait painter (born 1716)
• March 18 – Gerard Vandergucht, English born engraver and art dealer (born c.1696)
• April 1 – Gaetano Lapis, Italian painter (born 1704)
• May 4 – Jacques Saly, French sculptor (born 1717)
• July 29 – Charles Francois Hutin, French history and figure painter, engraver and sculptor (born 1715)
• August – Lorenzo Baldissera Tiepolo, painter (born 1736)
• September 22 – Giuseppe Peroni, Italian painter of frescoes (born 1700)
• date unknown
  • Vittorio Bigari, Italian painter (born 1692)
  • Angelica Le Gru Perotti, Italian painter (born 1719)
  • Thomas Pingo, medallist and engraver (born 1692)
  • Ike no Taiga, Japanese painter and calligrapher (born 1723)
  • Mattheus Verheyden, Dutch painter (born 1700)