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John Selby-BiggeJohn Selby-Bigge (1892-1973) was born in Oxford and educated at Winchester and Christ Church, Oxford, before attending the Slade School of Fine Art. There he met fellow artist, Ruth Humphries, and they married in July 1914 just before he left the Slade to serve as a lieutenant with the Royal Army Service Corps during the First World War. John Selby-Bigge painted as ‘John Bigge’. In the late 1920s, he became an active member of the Surrealist group of artists through his and his wife’s friendships with Edward Wadsworth, Tristram Hillier and Paul Nash.
Selby-Bigge's works are held in numerous public collections including Tate, Southampton City Art Gallery, Ferens Art Gallery, Leeds Art Gallery and MIMA, Middlesborough. His work was recently included in Forbidden Territories: 100 Years of Surreal Landscapes at the Hepworth Wakefield in 2024-25. In December 2025, England & Co held the exhibition, John and Ruth Selby-Bigge: From the Slade to Surrealism, which was the first time their work was exhibited together.
• England & Co represent John Selby-Bigge’s estate and are working on a catalogue raisonné and would be interested to receive any information about the locations of his artworks from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, as many are unrecorded.
BIOGRAPHY
15.5 x 20.75 inches
Oil on board
Private collection
