John Edward Pigot (1822–1871) was an Irish music collector and lawyer, who played a key role in the foundation of the National Gallery of Ireland.
Nature has written on that handsome but fatal-looking countenance of his, quite legibly to my prophetic eye, 'Go and get thyself beheaded, but not before having lent a hand towards the great work of immortal smash'" (ibid., pp. 3–4).
Jane Carlyle describes Pigot as: "a handsome youth of the romantic cast, pale-faced, with dark eyes and hair, and an 'Emancipation of Species' melancholy spread over him" (ibid., p. 2).
Pigot went to Bombay and practised at the Indian Bar returning to Ireland due to ill health in 1871.
A memorandum written by Pigot in 1853 played a crucial role in the foundation of the National Gallery of Ireland, and he was appointed one of its first Governors.