Author: [DRAWING]. SAUNDERS, John.
Title: [John Sturges in Turkish costume with turban and gold-trimmed coat].Peterborough, 1739. Pastel on paper, mounted on canvas (41 x 30.5 cm), stretched over (original?) wooden board.
Description: A pastel portrait drawn by the prolific itinerant portraitist John Saunders (1682-ca.1758) at Peterborough in September 1739. Saunders is recorded as active in East Anglia, the Midlands and elsewhere in the mid-18th century. The sitter John Sturges appears in Turkish costume, wearing a white turban with blue feather and a coat with gold trimmings and a fur collar. Saunders probably based it on a 1733 mezzotint drawn and engraved by Francis Kyte (d. 1744) after a painting (or the ink-wash drawing noted below?) by John Vanderbank (1694-1739). The pastel is of interest as an example of mid-18th century depiction of Turkish costume.With a paper label on the back with a manuscript note repeating information from the autograph pencil inscription by Saunders on the front, top right: "Saunders pinxit after Mr. J[oh]n Vanderbank Peterborough Sept. anno d. 1739". Two negligible scratches to surface, otherwise in good condition.l Jeffares, "John Saunders 1682-p. 1758", in: Dictionary of pastellists before 1800 (online ed.).

Keywords: [04F65CFF5112] ART, ARCHITECTURE & PHOTOGRAPHY|[04F65CFF5112] ART, ARCHITECTURE & PHOTOGRAPHY -> [H9DK8KRLJRV2] Caricature, Costume & Satire|[04F65CFF5112] ART, ARCHITECTURE & PHOTOGRAPHY -> [G91CNMP078RQ] Drawings, Prints & Watercolours|[G8L0P27N9XV3] MI