1740 in art

Births

• February 16 – Giambattista Bodoni, Italian typographer, type-designer, compositor, printer and publisher (died 1813)
• March 2 – Nicholas Pocock, English marine painter (died 1821)
• May 28 – Fedot Shubin, Russian sculptor (died 1805)
• September 7 – Johan Tobias Sergel, Swedish sculptor (died 1814)
• September 17 – John Hamilton Mortimer, British Neoclassical painter known primarily for his romantic paintings and Italian landscapes (died 1779)
• October 31 – Philip James de Loutherbourg, English miniaturist (died 1812)
• November 24 – John Bacon, British sculptor (died 1799)
• date unknown
• Innocente Alessandri, Italian engraver, born in Venice (died unknown)
• Margaret Bingham, British painter and writer (died 1814)
• William Beilby, British glassworker and enameller (died 1819)
• Claude André Deseine, French sculptor (died 1823)
• Edmund Garvey, Irish painter (died 1813)
• Charles-Étienne Gaucher, French engraver (died 1804)
• Nathaniel Grogan Irish painter from Cork (died 1807)
• William Marlow, English marine painter (died 1813)
• Nikola NeÅ¡ković, Serbian religious painter of icons, frescoes, and portraits (died 1789)
• Mariano Ramon Sanchez, Spanish painter primarily of portrait miniatures (died 1822)
• probable
• John Smart, English painter of portrait miniatures (died 1811)
• Hugh Douglas Hamilton, Irish portrait artist (died 1808)
• Vincenzio Vangelisti, Italian engraver (died 1798)
• Antoine Vestier, French miniaturist and painter of portraits (died 1824)

Deaths

• January 30 – Amalia Königsmarck, Swedish painter (born 1663)
• February 23 – Massimiliano Soldani Benzi, Italian sculptor and medallist (born 1656)
• April 21 – Antonio Balestra, Italian Rococo painter (born 1666)
• May 18 – Giuseppe Palmieri, Italian painter (born 1674)
• June – Jan Frans van Bloemen, Flemish landscape painter (born 1662)
• July 16 – Jan Kupecký, Czech and Slovak portrait painter (born 1667)
• July 20 – Giuseppe Antonio Caccioli, Italian painter (born 1672)
• July 21 – Johann Evangelist Holzer, Austrian-German painter (born 1709)
• September 2 – Pietro Bianchi, Italian painter, active in Genoa and Rome (born 1694)
• November 22 – Georg Gsell, Swiss painter (born 1673)
• December 24 – Bernard Lens III, English artist known primarily for his portrait miniatures (born 1682)
• date unknown
• Francesco Costa, Italian painter of ornaments and quadratura (born 1672)
• Franz de Paula Ferg, Austrian landscape painter (born 1689)
• Francesco Fernandi, Italian painter (born 1679)
• Jean Joly, French sculptor (born 1650)
• Antonio Lorenzini, Italian painter and engraver (born 1655)
• Grigoriis Musikiysky, Russian painter (born 1670)
• Giacomo Pavia, Italian painter, active mainly in his native Bologna (born 1655)
• Giovanni Felice Ramelli, Italian miniaturist (born 1666)
• Arcangelo Resani, Italian painter of animals and hunted game (born 1670)
• Giuseppe Rivola, Italian painter (born unknown)
• Jacob van Huysum, Dutch botanical artist (born 1687)
• probable – Guglielmo da Leoni, Italian painter and engraver (born 1664)