Sir John Leighton HRSA (b. 1959) was educated in Northern Ireland, Scotland (University of Edinburgh/Edinburgh College of Art) and England (Courtauld Institute of Art, London). Leighton taught art history at Edinburgh before being appointed in 1986 as Curator of 19th Century Paintings at the National Gallery in London. In 1997, he became the first foreign Director of a Dutch national museum when he was appointed General-Director of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
From 2006 to 2023, Sir John was the Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland. He oversaw a major renovation of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (reopened in 2011) and the creation of new galleries for Scottish art at the National Gallery (opened September 2023) as well as the design phase for a major new collections facility, due to be completed by 2028. During his tenure, visitor numbers to the National Galleries of Scotland more than doubled to around 2.5 million a year.
Sir John has curated numerous exhibitions in the UK and in Europe and has published and lectured on various aspects of art history and museum politics. He has served on many international boards and advisory committees, including the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Mauritshuis in The Hague, and the De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art in Tilburg, the Netherlands. He is currently a Trustee of the Princely Collections of Liechtenstein and a Director of the Bridget Riley Art Foundation.
In 2005 Leighton was appointed Chevalier in the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, Edinburgh in 2008and he was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh in 2009 and a Knighthood in December 2012.
