Artist. A native of Milan, Italy, he is most notable for his portrait paintings of beggars, and for his 1955 portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, which has been used on several colonial banknotes including the 1968 Rhodesian note. His portrait of Queen Elizabeth II hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London, England. Known for his style of Italian Renaissance, he was a contrast to the modernist and post-modernist artistic styles of the middle and late 20th century. Among his other works was the 1951 portrait, “The Beautiful Italian” (his wife Rosella Segreto was the model for this portrait), and several portraits of famous people including John F. Kennedy, Ludwig Erhard, Margot Fonteyn, Pope John XXIII, Maharanee of Jaipur, Luigi Ugolini, Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi, Lyndon B. Johnson, and the American-Italian poet-actress Vanna Bonta. His work has appeared on several covers of Time Magazine, and hangs in art galleries worldwide including the Uffizi Gallery, Modern Art Gallery, Pitti Palace in Florence, Italy, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Vatican Museums in Rome, Italy, the Royal Collection of Windsor Castle, and the National Potrait Gallery of England in London, England. Annigoni died in Florence, Italy, in October of 1988, at the age of 78, and was given a state funeral. (bio by: K)