Principally a topographic artist, Rigby Graham was born in Stretford in 1931. He moved to Leicester in his early childhood where he attended Leicester College of Art, specialising in mural painting. After teaching at local schools Graham returned to lecture at the College of Art, firstly in Graphic Design and Printing, then in Education and latterly in Bookbinding. He retired from teaching in 1983. His work is influenced by Neo-Romantics but in his colour he owes much to German Expressionism and he is considered one of the most important landscape painters of the late 20th century. The archive of his work, now at Manchester Metropolitan University, is a central resource for the study of landscape painting, lithographic and wood-cut printing, book illustration and production and private presses. Rigby died in May 2015 after a long illness.