Events from the year 1765 in art.

• June 12 – The death of General John Guise in London activates his 1760 bequest of a large collection of Old Master paintings to his alma mater, Christ Church, Oxford, where they are assembled in 1767 as the foundation of Christ Church Picture Gallery.^[1]
• September 23 - G. Van Oostrum's collection of paintings is sold at auction in The Hague. Smiling Girl, a Courtesan, Holding an Obscene Image is lot 241.
• The Uffizi in Florence is officially opened to the public as an art gallery.
• Irish sculptor Christopher Hewetson and American painter Henry Benbridge arrive in Rome, where Hewetson settles.
• The Hermitage Museum acquires the art collection of Heinrich von Brühl, including Perseus and Andromeda by Rubens.

• Francis Cotes – Portrait of Maria Walpole, Countess Waldegrave
• Nathaniel Dance – William Weddell, The Reverend William Palgrave and Mr Janson in Rome
• Jean-Honoré Fragonard – The High Priest Coresus Sacrificing Himself to Save Callirhoe
• Anton Graff – Self-portrait
• Tilly Kettle – Portrait of Mrs. Yates as Mandane in 'The Orphan of China' (approximate date; Tate Britain)
• William Pars – The Parthenon when it contained a mosque (Published in James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, The Antiquities of Athens, London, 1789)
• Joshua Reynolds
  • Portrait of John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore
  • Robert Clive and his family with an Indian maid
• George Stubbs – Portrait of a Hunting Tyger (Cheetah with two Indian attendants and a stag)
• Richard Wilson – Lake Avernus I (approximate date)

• February 21 – Michał Ceptowski, Bavarian born stucco artist who settles and worked in Poland (died 1829)
• March 3 – Francesco Alberi, Italian painter of historical scenes and frescoes (died 1836)
• March 7 – Nicéphore Niépce, French inventor and pioneer photographer (died 1833)
• April 1 – Luigi Schiavonetti, Italian artist (died 1810)
• May 7 – Giovanni Monti, Italian landscape painter (died 1825)
• May 13 – Vieira Portuense, Portuguese painter (died 1805)
• June 10 – Cladius Detlev Fritzsch, also known as C. D. Fritzsch, Danish flower painter (died 1841)
• December 3 – Adélaïde Dufrénoy, French poet and painter from Brittany (died 1825)
• date unknown
  • Pietro Bonato, Italian painter and engraver (died 1820)
  • Edme-François-Étienne Gois, French sculptor (died 1836)
  • Thomas Kirk, British painter and engraver (died 1797)
  • Domenico Vantini, Italian painter specializing in portrait miniatures (died 1825)
  • 1765/1770 – Fryderyk Bauman, Polish architect and sculptor-decorator (died 1845)

• February 10 – Jean-Baptiste-Henri Deshays, French painter (born 1729)
• April 15 – Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian polymath, scientist, writer and mosaic artist (born 1711)
• May – Joseph Badger, American portrait artist (born 1707)
• July 15 – Charles-André van Loo, French subject painter (born 1705), and a younger brother of Jean-Baptiste van Loo
• August 1 – Ulla Adlerfelt, Swedish painter and noblewoman (born 1736)
• August 18 – Jean-Joseph Balechou, French engraver (born 1715)
• September 5 – Johann Christian Fiedler, German portrait painter (born 1697)
• October 21 – Giovanni Paolo Pannini or Panini, Italian painter and architect, mainly known as one of the vedutisti or veduta or view painters (born 1691)
• December 5 – Johann Salomon Wahl, German painter who became court painter in Denmark (born 1689)
• date unknown
  • Pietro Campana, Spanish engraver (born 1727)
  • Giovanni Battista Chiappe, Italian painter of the late-Baroque period (born 1723)
  • Corrado Giaquinto, Italian Rococo painter (born 1703)
  • Ercole Graziani the Younger, Italian painter (born 1688)
  • James MacArdell, Irish engraver of mezzotints (born 1729)
  • Zheng Xie, Chinese painter of orchids, bamboo, and stones; one of the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou (born 1693)
  • Giampietro Zanotti, Italian painter and art historian (born 1674)
  • Jacopo Zoboli, Italian etcher and painter of altarpieces and portraits (born 1700)