Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Alefounder, John

600007Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 01 — Alefounder, John1885Ernest Radford

ALEFOUNDER, JOHN (d. 1795), portrait and miniature painter, studied at the Royal Academy, and gained a silver medal in 1782. He exhibited first, in 1777, an architectural design, following in successive years with work in various kinds. In 1784 he exhibited some theatrical portraits and portrait groups. He left England and realised some fortune by his paintings in India. He died from the effect of the climate of that country.

Bartolozzi engraved after Alefounder ‘Peter the Wild Boy’ in 1784, and a portrait by him of Edwin, the actor, as Lingo in the ‘Pleasant Surprise,’ was engraved in the same year by C. N. Hodges. At the Society of Arts may be seen a portrait by him of John Shipley.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Painters; Edwardes's Anecdotes of Painters; Nagler's Künstler-Lexicon, ed. 1872.]

E. R.