ortrait of a Lady, three-quarter length, seated in a landscape wearing a white silk gown and pink cloak. Signed and dated 'Jn Vanderbank fecit 1739'. Oil on canvas in a giltwood frame.

John Vanderbank (1694-1739) was born in London, the eldest son of John Vanderbank Senior who was the owner of the Soho Tapestry Manufactory. He was one of the first students at Godfrey Kneller's academy, later taken over by Sir James Thornhill. In 1720 Vanderbank opened his own academy with Louis Chéron, holding life classes with both male and female models, but in 1724 fled to France to avoid debtors prison. George Vertue ( Vertue, notebooks, 3.98) noted that 'he liv'd very extravagantly, keeping a chariot horses a mistress drinking and country house a purpose for her'. In Vertue's opinion, ( Vertue, notebooks, 5.98) after Kneller's death, Vanderbank could have been the leading portrait painter of his day had he not lived so extravagantly. Vanderbank's portraits are distinguished by his rich use of colour, particularly in the flesh tones. His sitters included Sir Isaac Newton (1725, RSA and Trinity College, Cambridge) and Queen Charlotte ( 1736, Goodwood House, Sussex) and he was also commissioned to illistrate 'Don Quixote' by publishers J and R Tonson in the original Spanish which appeared in 1738 with sixty-eight plates after Vanderbank.
Vanderbank died in London, December 1739, aged forty-five.