January 06, 2023 Image American portrait artist, author, and teacher John Howard Sanden passed away at 87 years old on December 24, 2022. Sanden graduated from Minneapolis School of Art (now MCAD) in 1956 with a bachelor of fine arts degree in illustration and became one of the nation's leading portrait artists for more than four decades. He painted leaders in government, business, the arts, education, royalty, and more. Upon moving to New York in 1969, he established a nationwide portrait clientele of the famous and influential. In 1994, he received the acclaimed John Singer Sargent Medal for Lifetime Achievement from the American Society of Portrait Artists, and in 2005 he received the Founders' Gold Medal from the Portrait Society of America. Sanden accepted the MCAD 2014 Alumni Achievement Award for his exceptional talent and contributions to portraiture.