JOHN HOWARD SANDEN

Fifty years painting the world’s most interesting personalities.

his year is John Howard Sanden’s fiftieth year as a portrait artist. From 1967 to 1972, he was affiliated with Reader’s Digest magazine — at that time the world’s largest-circulation periodical — for whom he painted some 85 portraits during those years. In 1970, he opened his studio in New York City, and has since painted 370 commissioned portraits. 98 of those portraits are of corporate CEOs and 42 of them are of university presidents. In 1994, John received the John Singer Sargent Medal for Lifetime Achievement from the American Society of Portrait Artists (the first artist to receive that award), and in 2010 he received the Founders’ Gold Medal from the Portrait Society of America. He is the author of six books on portrait painting. His official portraits of President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush were unveiled at the White House on May 31, 2012.