Events from the year 1772 in art.

• July 13 – Captain James Cook leaves Plymouth in HMS Resolution on his second voyage of exploration with landscape painter William Hodges onboard (in lieu of Johann Zoffany).
• King George III of the United Kingdom appoints Benjamin West official painter to the court.

• John Singleton Copley – Samuel Adams (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
• Thomas Gainsborough
  • The Linley Sisters
  • William Johnstone-Pulteney
• Thomas Jones – Pencerrig
• Tilly Kettle – Dancing Girls (Blacks)
• Anton Raphael Mengs – The Triumph of History over Time (Allegory of the Museum Clementinum; ceiling fresco in the Camera dei Papiri, Vatican Library)
• Fyodor Rokotov – Portrait of Alexandra Struyskaya
• Alexander Roslin
  • King Christian VII of Denmark
  • King Gustav III of Sweden
• George Stubbs
  • The Kongouro from New Holland
  • Portrait of a Large Dog
• Claude Joseph Vernet – The Shipwreck
• Joseph Wright of Derby – Miravan Breaking Open the Tomb of his Ancestors
• Johann Zoffany
  • The Academicians of the Royal Academy
  • Queen Charlotte with her children and brothers

• 
  Copley – Samuel Adams
• 
  Gainsborough – The Linley Sisters
• 
  Rokotov – Portrait of Alexandra Struyskaya
• 
  Vernet – The Shipwreck

• John Flaxman is unsuccessful in the competition for the gold medal of the Royal Academy.

• February 8 – Louis-Marie Autissier, French-born Belgian portrait miniature painter (died 1830)
• February 26 – Gerhard von Kügelgen, German painter of portraits and history paintings (died 1820)
• May 11 – Adélaïde Victoire Hall, French painter (died 1844)
• August 11 – Eduard Joseph d'Alton, German engraver and naturalist (died 1840)
• September 19 – Vicente López y Portaña, Spanish portrait painter (died 1850)
• date unknown
  • Edward Bird, painter (died 1819)
  • Alexander Day, English miniature painter and art dealer (died 1841)
  • François Louis Thomas Francia, landscape painter (died 1839)
  • William Hamlin, American engraver and the first engraver for the state of Rhode Island (died 1869)
  • Joaquín Bernardo Rubert, Spanish still life floral painter (died 1817)
  • Wendela Gustafva Sparre, Swedish textile artist and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Art (died 1855)
  • Pavel Đurković, Serbian painter and muralist (died 1830).

• June 1 – Marcellus Laroon the Younger, English painter and draughtsman (born 1679)
• June 4 – Johann Michael Feuchtmayer, stucco sculptor and plasterer (born 1709)
• August 31 – Marie-Suzanne Giroust, French painter (born 1734)
• October 12 – Samuel Scott, English marine and topographical painter and etcher (born 1702)
• October 20 – William Taverner, English judge and landscape painter (born 1703)
• November 11 – Jan Maurits Quinkhard, Dutch painter and print designer (born 1688)
• November 19 – Charles Norbert Roettiers, French engraver (born 1720)
• date unknown
  • Benoît Audran the Younger, French engraver (born 1698)
  • Giovanni Angelo Borroni, Italian painter of the late-Baroque and early-Neoclassic periods (born 1684)
  • Robert Gillow, furniture designer (born 1704)
  • José Romeo, Spanish painter (born 1701)
  • Huang Shen, Chinese painter (born 1687)
  • Johanne Seizberg, German-Danish illustrator and teacher (born 1732)
  • Alejandro González Velázquez, Spanish late-Baroque architect and painter (born 1719)
  • Zou Yigui, Chinese painter in Qing Dynasty (born 1686)