Portrait of a Woman in White

Vanderbank studied in Sir Godfrey Kneller’s academy between 1711 and 1720, going on to set up his own academy in St. Martin’s Lane with fellow artist Louis Chéron. Vanderbank was a successful portrait painter, but his extravagant lifestyle led him into debt and in 1729 he entered ‘the liberties of the Fleet’ - mansion houses near Fleet prison, London, in which certain privileged prisoners could serve out their sentences in return for payment.

In 1738, the year this picture was painted, the engraver and antiquary George Vertue wrote that 'Mr John Vanderbank has of late or some years had a gret run of Busines - painting persons of Quality and distinction ...'