Events from the year 1796 in art.

• Printing by lithography is invented by Alois Senefelder in Bohemia.^[1]
• Ann Jemima Provis and her father Thomas Provis perpetrated the Venetian secret scandal where they falsely claimed to have found a document describing Renaissance-era painting methods. A number of prominent artists were fooled, most notably Benjamin West.^[2]

• Henry Fuseli – The Night-Hag visiting the Lapland Witches
• Anton Graff – George Leopold Gogel
• Antoine-Jean Gros – Bonaparte at the Pont d'Arcole
• Hugh Douglas Hamilton – Lord Edward Fitzgerald
• Thomas Lawrence
  • Portrait of Lord Hawkesbury
  • The Children of John Julius Angerstein
• Henry Raeburn – Rev. Alexander Carlyle
• Edward Savage – The Washington Family
• Gilbert Stuart – Lansdowne portrait of George Washington
• J. M. W. Turner – Fishermen at Sea (his first oil painting to be exhibited at the Royal Academy)
• Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun - Portrait of Countess Yekaterina von Engelhardt

• February 3 – Jean-Baptiste Madou, Belgian painter and lithographer (died 1877)
• February 5 – Pieter Godfried Bertichen, Dutch painter and lithographer (died 1856)
• May 24 – Étienne-Jules Ramey, French sculptor and teacher (died 1852)
• May 28 – William Miller, Scottish Quaker line engraver (died 1882)
• June 27 (bapt.) – George Vincent, English landscape painter of the Norwich School (died c. 1832)
• June 30 – Antonin Moine, French romantic sculptor (died 1849)
• July 2 – Michael Thonet, German-born furniture designer (died 1871)
• July 3 – Maria Martin, American watercolor painter (died 1863)
• July 17 – Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, French painter (died 1875)
• July 26 – George Catlin, American painter specializing in portraits of Native Americans in the Old West (died 1872)
• August 21 – Asher Brown Durand, American painter of the Hudson River School (died 1886)
• August 30 – Julien-Léopold Boilly, French draughtsman and watercolorist (died 1874)
• September 4 – Peter Fendi, Austrian portrait and genre painter, engraver and lithographer (died 1842)
• September 5 – Jacobus Cornelis Gaal, Dutch painter and etcher (died 1866)
• September 24 – Antoine-Louis Barye, French sculptor (died 1875)
• October 9 – Joseph Bonomi the Younger, English sculptor, artist, Egyptologist and museum curator (died 1878)
• October 19 – Carl Wagner, German romantic landscape painter (died 1867)
• October 24 – David Roberts, Scottish painter (died 1864)
• October 30 – Wilhelm August Rieder, Austrian painter and draughtsman (died 1880)
• November 4 – John Neagle, American portrait painter (died 1865)
• date unknown
  • Gilles-François Closson, Belgian landscape painter (died 1842)
  • Joseph Farey, English mechanical engineer and draughtsman (died 1829)
  • Giovanni Paolo Lasinio, Italian engraver (died 1855)
  • Achille Etna Michallon, French landscape painter (died 1822)
  • Marcin Zaleski, Polish painter (died 1877)
• probable – John Ternouth, English sculptor (died 1848)

• March 9 – Saverio Gandini, Italian painter (born 1729)
• March 29 – Johan Philip Korn, Swedish painter (born 1728)
• April 2 – Ulrika Pasch, Swedish miniaturist painter (born 1735)
• August 6 – David Allan, Scottish painter of historical subjects (born 1744)
• August 8 – Franz Anton Maulbertsch, Austrian painter (born 1724)
• September 3 – Louis Jean-Jacques Durameau, French painter and winner of the Grand prix de Rome (born 1733)
• November 2 – Domenico Pozzi, Swiss painter (born 1745)
• November 12 – Margareta Christina Giers, Swedish painter (born 1731)
• December 29 – Miguel Verdiguier, French sculptor (born 1706)
• date unknown
  • John Frederick Miller, English illustrator (born 1759)
  • Hugh Robinson, British history and portrait painter (born 1756)
• probable – Francesco Battaglioli, Italian painter of veduta and capriccios (born 1722)