saunders was born in kinghorn in fife in 1796. she is thought to have been both trained by her uncle, george sa(u)nders and launched into her career based at his house in london. sanders was a successful portrait painter and she rapidly established a flow of commissions initially from scottish patrons for her miniatures but later for oil and watercolour paintings. by 1823 she was married to james robertson and exhibiting at the royal academy and by 1828 she had her own studio. the following year she became the first honorary woman member of the royal scottish academy.