John Francis Rigaud

John Francis Rigaud RA (18 May 1742 – 6 December 1810) was an eighteenth-century history, portrait, and decorative painter. Of French descent, he was born in Turin and spent most of his career in England.

Rigaud was born in Turin on 18 May 1742 and baptised on 9 September. He was the second son of James Dutilh or Rigaud and Jeanne Françoise Guiraudet. His father came from a family of Protestant merchants; his grandfather Jacques Dutilh had fled from Lyon to Geneva with his family after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Jacques died on the journey, and his widow assumed her maiden name—Rigaud—by which the family became known. John's brother James Stephen later became observer at the King's Observatory in England, whilst his nephew Stephen Peter Rigaud became a noted astronomer and mathematical historian.

Having demonstrated an artistic ability, Rigaud studied with Claudio Francesco Beaumont of Turin, historical painter to the king of Sardinia. He left Beaumont to travel Italy and study painting in Florence and in Bologna, where he was made a member of the Accademia Clementina in 1766. He then travelled to Rome, but had to return home due to family considerations. In January 1768, he set off once again, this time to Piacenza, Parma, Bologna, and then, once again, to Rome. He settled there and studied the city's art, particularly the old masters, and participated in life-drawing schools. There he produced what the Dictionary of National Biography describes as "one of his most important works": Hercules Resting from his Labours. While in Rome, Rigaud became friends with the Swedish sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel and the Irish painter James Barry.

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