Events from the year 1788 in art.

• Étienne Maurice Falconet becomes director of the Académie des beaux-arts.

• Thomas Barrett – Charlotte Medal
• James Barry – King Lear Weeping over the Dead Body of Cordelia (1786–88)
• Jacques-Louis David – Portrait of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and his Wife
• Marguerite Gérard – First Steps (approximate date)
• Girodet – The Death of Tatius
• Francisco Goya
  • Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga ("Red Boy", 1787–88)
  • The Meadow of San Isidro
  • St. Francis of Borja Attending a Dying Man
• Anton Graff – Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin
• Thomas Lawrence – Portrait of William Linley
• Guillaume Guillon-Lethière - Brutus Condemning His Sons to Death^[1]
• Philip James de Loutherbourg –The Falls of the Rhine at Schaffhausen
• Sir Joshua Reynolds
  • The Age of Innocence (probable date)
  • Lord Heathfield
  • Portrait of Maria Fitzherbert
• Johann Zoffany – Colonel Mordaunt's Cock Match

• February 5 – Sarah Goodridge, American painter who specialized in miniatures (died 1853)
• February 24 – Johan Christian Dahl, Norwegian landscape painter (died 1857)
• February 29 – Catharine Hermine Kølle, Norwegian adventurer and painter (died 1859)
• March 12 – Pierre Jean David, sculptor and engraver ("David d'Angers") (died 1856)
• April 5 – Franz Pforr, painter (died 1812)
• April 18 – Charles de Steuben, French painter active during the Napoleonic Era (died 1856)
• April 20 – Emma Körner, German painter (died 1815)
• April 24 – Ammi Phillips, American painter (died 1865)
• June 18 - Ernesta Legnani Bisi, Italian painter and engraver (died 1859)
• September 8 – William Collins, English landscape and genre painter (died 1847)
• August 6 – Felix Slade, founder of the Slade School of Art (died 1868)
• November 4 – Jacques-Édouard Gatteaux, French sculptor and medal engraver (died 1881)
• November 28 – Kikuchi Yōsai – Japanese painter most famous for his monochrome portraits of historical figures (died 1878)
• date unknown
  • Michele Bisi, Italian engraver and painter (date of death unknown)
  • Albertus Jonas Brandt, Dutch still-life painter (died 1821)
  • Martin Cregan, Irish portrait painter (died 1870)
  • John Watson Gordon, painter (died 1864)
  • Michael Hanhart, British lithographer and chromolithographer (died 1865)
  • Mary Harrison, English flower and fruit painter, and illustrator (died 1875)
  • Emma Eleonora Kendrick, British miniature painter (died 1871)
  • Paolo Toschi, Italian draughtsman and engraver (died 1854)
  • William Edward West, American portrait painter (died 1859)

• February 13 – Josef Jáchym Redelmayer, Czech painter, fresco painter and theater decorator (born 1727)
• February 17 – Maurice Quentin de La Tour, French Rococo portraitist who worked primarily with pastels (born 1704)
• March 2 – Solomon Gessner, Swiss painter and poet (born 1730)
• May 29 – Jacques Aliamet, French engraver (born 1726)
• July 15 – Jean Germain Drouais, French historical painter (born 1763)
• August 2 – Thomas Gainsborough, English portrait painter (born 1727)
• September 27 – Sir Robert Taylor, stonemason, sculptor, and architect (born 1714)
• September 30 – Matthäus Günther, German painter and artist of the Baroque and Rococo era (born 1705)
• December 30 – Francesco Zuccarelli, Italian Rococo painter, elected in 1763 to the Venetian Academy of Fine Arts (born 1702)
• date unknown
  • Fabio Berardi, Italian engraver (born 1728)
  • Joseph Bergler the Elder, Austrian sculptor (born 1718)
  • Carlo Bonavia, Italian veduta painter (date of birth unknown)
  • Gaspard Duché de Vancy, French painter and drawer (born 1756)
  • George Farington, English artist (born 1752)
  • Toriyama Sekien, scholar and ukiyo-e artist of Japanese folklore (born 1712)
  • François-Gaspard Teuné, French ébéniste (cabinet-maker) (born 1726)
  • Min Zhen, Chinese painter and seal carver born in Nanchang in Jiangxi (born 1730)