Events from the year 1761 in art.

• May 9 – Society of Artists of Great Britain exhibition opens in London. Exhibitors include Gainsborough, Hogarth and Nollekens, and Stubbs shows a painting for the first time (A Stallion Called Romulus).^[1]
• Scottish-born artist Allan Ramsay appointed to succeed John Shackelton as Principal Painter in Ordinary to George III of Great Britain.

• François-Hubert Drouais – The children of the comte de Bethune playing the guitar
• Thomas Gainsborough – Portrait of Susannah "Suky" Trevelyan^[2]
• William Hogarth – The Five Orders of Perriwigs as they were Worn at the Late Coronation Measured Architectonically (satirical engraving)
• Anton Raphael Mengs
  • Parnassus (ceiling fresco for Villa Albani, Rome)
  • Portrait of Charles III of Spain
• Joshua Reynolds
  • David Garrick Between Tragedy and Comedy
  • Georgiana, Countess Spencer, and Her Daughter
  • The Ladies Amabel and Mary Jemima Yorke (probable date)
• Louis-François Roubiliac – Memorials to Handel and Lady Elizabeth Nightingale in Westminster Abbey

• January 24 – Johann Christian Reinhart, German painter and etcher (died 1847)
• January 28 – Marguerite Gérard, French painter and etcher (died 1837)
• March – John Laporte, English landscape painter and etcher (died 1839)
• April 10 – Jacques-Edme Dumont, French sculptor (died 1844)
• May 16 – John Opie, Cornish historical and portrait painter (died 1807)
• June 29 – Jacques Kuyper, Dutch printmaker, painter, draftsman, watercolourist, etcher, musician, and composer (died 1808)
• July 5 – Louis-Léopold Boilly, French painter (died 1845)
• October 11 – Mather Brown, American-born portrait and historical painter (died 1831)
• October 21 – Louis Albert Guislain Bacler d'Albe, French artist, map-maker and close strategic advisor of Napoleon (died 1824)
• September 6 – Marie-Gabrielle Capet, French painter (died 1818)
• November 4 – Bertrand Andrieu, French engraver and medalist (died 1822)
• December 1 – Marie Tussaud, French-born wax modeller of the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum (died 1850)
• date unknown
  • Jan Frans Eliaerts, Flemish painter of animals, flowers and fruit (died 1848)
  • William Fowler, English artist (died 1832)
  • Charles Hayter, English painter (died 1835)
  • Sakai Hōitsu, Japanese painter of the Rinpa school (died 1828)
  • Zhang Yin, Chinese calligrapher and painter of Qing Dynasty (died 1829)
• probable – Robert Fagan, Irish painter, diplomat and archaeologist (died 1816)

• April 4 – Theodore Gardelle, painter and enameller (born 1722) (executed for murder)
• April 30 – Jean Duvivier, French medallist (born 1687)
• July 13 – Claes Lang, Finnish painter (born 1690)
• July 16 – Jacob Fortling, German-Danish sculptor, architect and manufacturer (born 1711)
• July 21 – Louis Galloche, French painter (born 1670)
• August 18 – François Gaspard Adam, French rococo sculptor (born 1710)
• September 7 – Johann Wolfgang Baumgartner, German painter (born 1702)
• December 10 – Johann Georg Platzer, Austrian painter of primarily historical and mythical scenes (born 1704)
• date unknown
  • August Querfurt, Austrian painter (born 1696)
  • Mary Roberts, miniaturist
  • Pieter Tanjé, engraver from the Northern Netherlands (born 1706)
  • Ivan Vishnyakov, Russian painter (born 1699)