John Peter Russell

John Peter Russell
Photograph of Russell, c. 1888
Born	John Peter Russell (1858-06-16)16 June 1858 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Died	30 April 1930(1930-04-30) (aged 71) Sydney
Nationality	Australian
Known for	Painting
Movement	Impressionism
Spouse(s)	Mariana Antoinetta Matiocco

John Peter Russell (16 June 1858 – 30 April 1930) was an Australian impressionist painter. Born and raised in Sydney, Russell moved to Europe in his late teenage years to attend art school. A "man's man", popular with other students, Russell befriended fellow pupil Vincent Van Gogh, and painted the first portrait of the future world-famous artist, now held at the Van Gogh Museum. Van Gogh maintained correspondence with Russell throughout his life. Russell's work was also admired by the French Impressionists, with whom he often painted. Russell returned to Sydney in old age, where he died. His works are held in major galleries in his home country and in Europe.

John Peter Russell was born at the Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst, the eldest of four children of John Russell, a Scottish engineer, his wife Charlotte Elizabeth, née Nicholl, from London. J. P. Russell was a nephew of Sir Peter Nicol Russell. After his father's death J. P. Russell enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, on 5 January 1881 and studied under Alphonse Legros for three years. Russell then went to Paris to study painting under Fernand Cormon. His fellow students there included Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Émile Bernard. Russell was a man of means and, having married a beautiful Italian, Mariana Antoinetta Matiocco, he settled at Belle Île off the coast of Brittany, where he established an artists' colony. He would have 11 children with Matiocco, of whom six survived.

Russell had met Vincent van Gogh in Paris and formed a friendship with him. Van Gogh spoke highly of Russell's work, and after his first summer in Arles in 1888 he sent twelve drawings of his paintings to Russell, to inform him about the progress of his work. Claude Monet often worked with Russell at Belle Île and influenced his style, though it has been said that Monet preferred some of Russell's Belle Île seascapes to his own. Due to his substantial private income Russell did not attempt to make his pictures well known.