Gérard Rigot (b. 1929) is a French artist and furniture maker. He came to art via the study of Classics, military service, and periods of time spent working as a photographic laboratory assistant, builder and a teacher in Algiers. In the period he spent teaching, he was profoundly affected by the beauty, colour and texture of the Algerian landscape. From 1978, he devoted himself completely to art, trying unsuccessfully to become a painter. Around the same time, he moved from Paris to a small sheep farm in Marciac in south-west France. Rigot began to make furniture for his new home shortly after moving there. He also made wooden toys. His first piece of childrens furniture was either a cat-shaped chair for his daughter, Marie, or a sheep-shaped chest or bedside table for either Marie or his son, Baptiste. He soon received several commissions and his pieces became collectible; some being sold from the shop of the Musée des Arts Decoratif, Paris. Several exhibitions of his work were hel