"John Howard Sanden is the closest we have in America to fit the old role of court painter." — Pete Hamill, famous author and columnist, writing in The New York Post, August 15, 1991. "I regard him as probably the top portrait painter in the country today." — Richard Schmid, leading American Impressionist painter, in an interview with The Danbury (Connecticut) News-Times, July 15, 2003.

ohn Howard Sanden has been, for 37 years or more, one of the nation's leading portrait artists. He has completed hundreds of commissioned portraits of leading figures in government, business, education, and the professions. He has also found time to write five books on portrait painting, lecture and teach at the Art Students League of New York for nearly three decades, produce numerous instructional videos, and conduct nationwide seminars, workshops and master classes. He writes a regular column of commentary on portraiture for the Internet site WorldofPortraitPainting.com.

On February 26, 2005, the Portrait Brokers of America presented John with their Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1993 the American Society of Portrait Artists presented John with the John Singer Sargent Medal for Lifetime Achievement. Other recipients of the Sargent Medal have been Andrew Wyeth, Richard Schmid, Everett Raymond Kinstler, Daniel Greene, Nelson Shanks, Burt Silverman, Bettina Steinke and Jamie Wyeth.

Also in 1993, Houghton College presented John with the honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree.

The critical year in John's personal history was 1969, the year he decided to leave the Midwest and a long career as art director for the Reverend Billy Graham, and try his hand at New York City and the world of portrait painting. Within months of arriving in New York, he was appointed to the teaching faculty of the Art Students League, had become affiliated with the city's principal portrait brokerage, and had established a nationwide portrait clientele of the famous, wealthy and influential.

Sanden thereupon launched into an ambitious teaching career. He founded the Portrait Institute in 1974 and began touring the nation, teaching his ideas and techniques to thousands, who came out to hear him in classes as large as seven hundred at a time. Those who could not come in person studied through one of the national correspondence instructional programs which he created. In 1979, Sanden launched the National Portrait Seminar, which grew to be—at that time—the largest art seminar program in America.

John is currently at work on his autobiography. Entitled Face to Face with Greatness: The Adventure of Portrait Painting, the volume brings together the highlights of his professional career (illustrated with many recent examples) plus the elements of his decades of teaching and writing.