Events from the year 1740 in art.

Events

• October 13 – Jacques Saly arrives in Rome to study at the French Academy there.
• Susanna Drury exhibits gouache paintings of the Giant's Causeway in Ireland.

Works

Chardin, The Morning Toilette

• Canaletto
  • A Regatta on the Grand Canal (National Gallery, London)
  • Venice: The Basin of San Marco on Ascension Day (National Gallery, London)
  • Venice: The Campo SS. Giovanni e Paolo (British Royal Collection, Windsor Castle)
  • Venice: Santa Maria della Salute (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
• Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin – The Morning Toilette
• Matthäus Günther – Fresco in church of SS. Peter and Paul, Mittenwald, Bavaria
• William Hogarth – Portrait of Captain Thomas Coram
• James Latham – The Rt Hon. Sir Capel Molyneux
• Michele Marieschi – The Grand Canal at the Palazzo Foscari
• Philippe Mercier – Portrait of John Hall-Stevenson
• Peter Scheemakers – Monument to William Shakespeare in Westminster Abbey (designed by William Kent)

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 Nešković, 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)