Events from the year 1774 in art.

Events

• Marie Louise Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun becomes a member of the Académie.

Works

• Thomas Gainsborough – Portrait of Sir William Blackstone
• Anton Graff – Johann Georg Sulzer
• Thomas Jones – The Bard
• Angelica Kauffman – Portrait of Lady Georgiana, Lady Henrietta Frances and George John Spencer, Viscount Althorp
• Sir Joshua Reynolds – Portrait of Charles Coote, Earl of Bellamont, in robes of the Order of the Bath
• Richard Wilson – Pembroke Town and Castle

Births

• January 5 – George Chinnery, English painter working in Asia (died 1852)
• February 17 – Raphaelle Peale, considered the first professional American painter of still-life (died 1825)
• April 18 – Antonio Basoli, Italian painter, interior designer, engraver and professor (died 1848)
• May 13 – Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, French painter (died 1833)
• June 10 – Carl Haller von Hallerstein, German art historian (died 1817)
• August 30 – Henri Van Assche, Belgian painter (died 1841)
• September 5 – Caspar David Friedrich, German Romantic painter (died 1840)
• date unknown
  • Giovanni Balestra, Italian engraver (died 1842)
  • William Barnard, English mezzotint engraver (died 1849)
  • Lisa Erlandsdotter, Swedish artist (died 1854)
  • Jean-Pierre Franque, French historical subjects and portraiture painter (died 1860)
  • Gai Qi, poet and painter born in the west of China under the Qing dynasty (died 1829)
  • William Jennys, American naïve art portrait painter (died 1859)
  • Archer James Oliver, British portrait painter (died 1842)
  • Johann Georg Primavesi, German etcher and painter, primarily of landscapes (died 1855)
  • Richard Sass, English landscape painter, etcher, and drawing master to royalty (died 1849)
  • Charles Henry Schwanfelder, English animal, landscape and portrait painter (died 1837)
  • Marie-Denise Villers, French painter specializing in portraits (died 1821)

Deaths

• January 1 – Jan Jerzy Plersch, Polish sculptor of German origin (born 1704/1705)
• January 13 – Shem Drowne, American coppersmith and tinplate worker (born 1683)
• January 28 – Antonio Galli Bibiena, Italian architect, also at Vienna Hofburg (born 1700)
• April 11 – Elias Gottlob Haussmann, German painter (born 1695)
• April 23 – Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich, German painter (born 1712)
• May 17 – Jeremiah Theus, Swiss-born American painter, primarily of portraits (born 1716)
• July 9 – Anna Morandi Manzolini, Italian sculptor in wax (born 1714)
• August 26 – Philipp Jakob Straub, Austrian sculptor (born 1706)
• September 10 – Pierre-Jean Mariette, French art collector (born 1694)
• October 27 – Gerolamo Mengozzi Colonna, Italian quadratura painter (born 1688)
• December 31 – Johann Christoph Handke, Moravian Baroque painter (born 1694)
• date unknown
  • Marie-Elisabeth Simons, Belgian painter (born 1754)
  • Philippe Caffieri, French sculptor (born 1714)
  • Simon François Ravenet, French engraver (born 1706)
• probable – Anton Čebej, Slovenian baroque painter (born 1722)