He has been described variously as a "gentleman academic" and an "amateur" art historian, though such remarks are not borne out by his many achievements and a lasting legacy of scholarship in his field of study.

[1] Born in Rugby[2] and brought up in Gloucestershire, Talbot Rice was educated at Eton prior to reading archaeology and anthropology at Christ Church, Oxford.

[3] At Oxford his circle of friends included Evelyn Waugh and Harold Acton as well as his future wife (Elena) Tamara Abelson (1904–1993) whom he was to marry in 1927.

[11] Talbot Rice's academic career took off in 1934 when, at a comparatively young age, he was appointed to the Watson Gordon Chair of Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh, a post he held until his death in 1972.

[13] World War Two interrupted his academic pursuits when he was called up as head of the Near East Section of Military Intelligence (MI3b), which was responsible for Eastern Europe including Yugoslavia but excluding Russia and Scandinavia.

From 1952 to 1954, he led the excavations of the Great Palace of Constantinople in Istanbul, Turkey[16] and he was later involved in the uncovering and restoration of the Byzantine frescos in the Hagia Sophia in Trabzon.

His ambition to establish an arts centre in the university was realised posthumously in 1975 by his successor Professor Giles Henry Robertson when the Talbot Rice Gallery was founded and named after him.