John Saunders

John Saunders (1682 - c. 1758) was a pastel-painter of merit, who practised at Norwich (1722), Cambridge (1725), Bath (1730), New Casle upon Tyne (1734), Gloucester (1752) and several other places. In London he was active between 1730 and 1758. He was a prolific itinerant portraitist. The poet laureate Laurence Eusden (1688-1730) addressed a poem to John Saunders in 1725 ‘on seeing his Paintings at Cambridge.’ His son John Saunders (1750-1825), who was a celebrated painter too, appeared in 1775 in the catalogue of the Royal Academy as John Saunders Junior.