John Rigby

Who was John Rigby?

John Rigby was an Australian artist known for his tropical and bush landscapes, genre and portraits.

He was born in Brisbane.

He won the Italian Government Travelling Art Prize in 1955 and the Women's Weekly Art Prize for Portraits in 1958. He also won the Sulman Prize for 1962, along with many other prizes and he has had numerous portraits hung in the Archibald Prize since the early 1950s.

He was a Trustee of the Queensland Art Gallery from 1969 to 1987 and Officer-in-charge of Fine Art at the Queensland College of Art between 1974 and 1984. Rigby received an honorary doctorate from Griffith University in 1994 for services to the arts and was made an honorary member of the Royal Queensland Art Society in 2001 and a Companion of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003. He was the subject of a book "John Rigby: Art and Life" launched by the Queensland Art Gallery in 2003. In 2004, the Museum of Brisbane held a special survey of his portraits spanning some 50 years.