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John Alefounder (1757 – 1795) was a painter of portraits and miniatures, working in London and later in India.

Life

Alefounder was born in Colchester, Essex in 1757 and became a student at the Royal Academy Schools in 1776.[1]

He exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1777 and 1793. The first piece he showed was a Design for a Lunatic Asylum, but after that he showed mostly portraits.[2] He won a silver medal in 1782.

In 1784 he exhibited some theatrical portraits and portrait groups. Francesco Bartolozzi made an engraving after his portrait of "Peter the Wild Boy"[3] and in the same year C.H. Hodges engraved his portrait of the actor John Edwin.[3][4]

He subsequently went to India and died at Calcutta on 25 December 1794.[1][3] According to William Baillie, in a letter written the following year, he committed suicide, in despair at his financial situation.[5]

References

Sources

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Bryan, Michael (1886). "Alefounder, John". In Graves, Robert Edmund (ed.). Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers (A–K). Vol. I (3rd ed.). London: George Bell & Sons.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Alefounder, John". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

External links

• John Alefounder 1757-1794, artist (Alefounder ancestors)

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