Famous People Who Died In 1768

Canaletto was an Italian painter who achieved popularity in England as his works were largely appreciated by King George III. Regarded as one of the most prominent representatives of the 18th-century Venetian school, Canaletto was also renowned for his skills as a printmaker.

German art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann is often referred to as the father of modern archaeology. Born to a cobbler, he studied Greek, theology, and even medicine. He later specialized in Greek and Neoclassical art and had a prominent influence on Western painting, sculpture, and literature.

Georg Brandt was a Swedish mineralogist and chemist best remembered for discovering cobalt. He is also credited with identifying and exposing fraudulent alchemists. Georg Brandt also served as a professor at Uppsala University.

Though he was initially educated in law, George Hadley gained fame as a physicist and meteorologist. He is remembered for his extensive research on trade-wind currents and for devising a theory describing trade winds and the north-south circulation pattern, which is now known as the Hadley cell.

Born in Eberbach, Conrad Beissel had initially worked as a baker in Heidelberg and later moved to America. Part of the Schwarzenau Brethren, or the German Baptists, he later led his own group of people who formed the German Seventh Day Baptists and observed the Sabbath as a holy day.

François de Cuvilliés was a Bavarian architect and decorative designer. He played a key role in bringing the Rococo style to the House of Wittelsbach and to Central Europe. He designed several important buildings, such as The Old Residence Theatre which he constructed for Elector Max III Joseph. François de Cuvilliés also wrote many treatises on decorative and artistic subjects.

French astronomer Joseph-Nicolas Delisle is best known for inventing the temperature scale known as the Delisle scale. He also studied the rings of Saturn and spent 22 years in Russia, training budding astronomers there. He also suggested a collaborative effort of scientists to study the 1761 transit of Venus.

The son of a carpenter, James Short was orphaned at 10 but later excelled in studied and became a renowned optician. He then focused on making telescopes and became the first to create parabolic mirrors which produced images without distortions in reflecting telescopes. He was later named a Fellow of The Royal Society.