age of twenty-four, he was elected a member of the Accademia Clementina; afterwards he went to Rome, but was recalled to Turin for family reasons. He found plenty of work in Turin, but returned to Rome in 1768 to complete his studies. At Rome he met James Barry (1741–1806) [q. v.] among others, and it was perhaps through him that he determined to go to England. He reached London in December 1771, and was fortunately befriended by merchant friends of his father in the city. He had, however, to face early struggles in art, and was assisted by Nollekens the sculptor, whose portrait was one of the first pictures exhibited by Rigaud in the Royal Academy of 1772. He had, however, already attained sufficient distinction to be elected an associate of the Royal Academy in November 1772, having not been a complete year in England. He continued to exhibit historical and classical pictures and portraits at the Royal Academy for many years, but his most lucrative and engrossing employment seems to have been painting decorative subjects for ceilings and staircases of the town and country mansions of the nobility. Among his employers for this purpose were Lord Melbourne, Lord Gower, Lord Sefton, Lord Aylesford, and others. These were executed in the popular Italian style of Cipriani and Biagio Rebecca, being mostly classical figures, imitations of bas-reliefs, and similar subjects. As an historical painter Rigaud had little merit, though he contributed some of the pictures to Boydell's ‘Shakespeare Gallery.’ As a portrait-painter he ranks high, his portraits being well and strongly painted. The most important among these were a portrait group of Bartolozzi, Carlini, and Cipriani, exhibited as ‘Portraits of Three Italian Artists’ at the Royal Academy in 1777, of which there is a good engraving by John Raphael Smith; and a companion to this, exhibited as ‘Portraits of Three English Artists,’ representing Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir William Chambers, and Joseph Wilton, the sculptor, which is now in the National Portrait Gallery. In 1781 he painted for Captain E. H. Locker [q. v.] small portraits of naval heroes, including Nelson.
Rigaud was elected a royal academician on 10 Feb. 1784, and seems to have been very popular with his colleagues. He was chosen to be visitor of the academy students on several occasions. He continued to contribute regularly to the exhibitions up to the year of his death. In 1805 he received a commission to paint a ceiling at Windsor Castle, and he also was employed to restore the ceiling and staircase paintings in the old British Museum. Rigaud continued to maintain correspondence with his relatives in Switzerland, and painted a portrait of Mallet Dupan on his taking refuge in England (now in the possession of Bernard Mallet, esq.). He and his son were prominent members of the Marylebone volunteers, on their being mustered in 1799. Rigaud died at Packington, the seat of Lord Aylesford, suddenly, from apoplexy on 6 Dec. 1810, and was buried there. He had in 1795 been appointed historical painter to Gustavus IV of Sweden, and was also a member of the Royal Academy of Stockholm. In 1802 he translated Leonardo da Vinci's ‘Treatise on Painting.’
On 21 July 1774 he married Mary (1740?–1808), second daughter of John Williams of Haverfordwest, by whom he left three daughters and one son, Stephen Francis Dutilh Rigaud [q. v.]
[Manuscript memoir of John Francis Rigaud, R.A., by his son, communicated by Miss Emily Warren Davies.]
RIGAUD, STEPHEN FRANCIS DUTILH (1777–1861), painter, only son of John Francis Rigaud, R.A. [q. v.], was born at 44 Great Titchfield Street, London, on 26 Dec. 1777. One of his godfathers was Stephen Rigaud, father of Stephen Peter Rigaud, Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford, who was in no way related to him. Rigaud was brought up by his father as an artist, and in 1792 was admitted a student of the Royal Academy. In 1794 he gained the silver palette from the Society of Arts for a classical group, and in 1799 the gold palette for an historical painting. In 1801 he gained the gold medal of the Royal Academy for an historical painting of ‘Clytemnestra.’ In 1798, while on a visit to the Rev. Robert Nixon at Foot's Cray in Kent, he accompanied Nixon and J. M. W. Turner on a sketching tour through Kent. He was the constant companion and assistant of his father in many of his decorative paintings at Packington, Windsor Castle, and elsewhere. In 1805 he was one of the first six members added to the foundation members of the ‘Old’ Society of Painters in Water-colours. He exhibited many drawings with the society as well as pictures at the Royal Academy and British Institution, his subjects being sacred, classical, or drawn from Milton, Ossian, and other poets. After the temporary dissolution of the water-colour society in November 1812, he dropped out of their ranks. In 1814 he was a member of a rival water-colour society which held exhibitions in that and the following years. Rigaud had, on 1 Jan. 1808, married Miss Margaret Davies
