Memorial Service for John Howard Sanden

The live stream of the Noroton Presbyterian Church Memorial Service for John Howard Sanden will be viewable here commencing 10:55 AM on Saturday, April 15th, 2023

John Howard Sanden was an American portrait artist, author, and teacher. In a career spanning 56 years as a painter of commissioned portraits, he completed 450 images of American leaders in government, business, and the professions. His official White House portraits of President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush were unveiled at the White House on May 31, 2012.  

He was the author of seven books on portrait painting. He taught portraiture at the Art Students League of New York, where his annual lecture series was a popular feature on the League calendar for 25 years. He founded The Portrait Institute in 1974 with his wife, Elizabeth. For more than sixty years, Mr. Sanden was associated with The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, beginning in 1961 as a professional staff member and throughout later decades providing portraits, magazine cover illustrations, and other art as recently as 2021.

John Howard Sanden was a professing Christian. He eagerly contributed paintings to the two churches with which he was associated: The Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City and The Noroton Presbyterian Church in Darien, Connecticut. 

The artist was associated in all of his professional endeavors with his wife of 49 years, Elizabeth (Schneider), who is also an artist. His first wife, Priscilla (Peters) died at an early age. He is also survived by his daughter, Pamela Brooke Sanden of Northampton, Massachusetts; his son, Jonathan Bryant Sanden of Chicago; daughter-in-law Rachel Wolff; and five grandchildren—Julian, Fiona, Penelope and Anna Livia McMahon, all of Northampton, and Elijah Wolff Sanden, of Chicago, Illinois, born November 2022.

Donations may be given in his memory to The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Noroton Presbyterian Church in Darien, or The Art Students League of New York.