(1697 - 1765)
Stephen Slaughter, portrait painter, was born in London. He studied at Sir Godfrey Kneller's Academy in Great Queen Street, before leaving to live on the Continent for 17 years, first in Paris and then in Flanders. He had returned to London by 1733, but soon afterwards, left again for Dublin, where he painted Nathaniel Kane, Lord Mayor of Dublin. After moving back to London, he set up practice in Bloomsbury Square. In the late 1730s he was commissioned to copy works at Althorp, Northamptonshire, by the Spencer family. In 1745, he became Surveyor and Keeper of the King's Pictures. In the 1740s he returned to Dublin again, moving back to London once more in the following decade. He retired to Kensington, where he died at about the age of 68.
