William Stamms Shackleford (Kentucky/Tennessee, 1814-1878) oil on canvas oval portrait of a very young child holding a blue shoe, and wearing a lace dress rendered in precise detail. The child is seated on a bed with a red and green leaf-patterned quilt, against a plain background with a small window visible to the left. Unsigned. Housed in a period giltwood frame. Sight: 27 1/2" H x 22 1/2" W. Framed: 31 1/2" H x 27" W. Artist Biography: William Shackelford, alternate spelling Shackleford, is believed to have been born in 1814 in Kentucky. In 1833, Shackleford assisted Oliver Frazer in painting the full length portrait of George Washington in the old Statehouse at Franklin, KY. He worked as a portrait painter in several Kentucky towns including Bowling Green and Paris. In the 1850s he moved to Clarksville, Tennessee. He also worked in Franklin, TN. Shackelford also dabbled in inventing, and claimed to have invented the Revolver before Samuel Colt. He died in Missouri, where he had family, sometime in or after 1878. (Source: Portrait Painting in Tennessee, Tennessee Historical Quarterly vo. XLVI no. 4).

PROVENANCE: Estate of Judge John Nixon, Nashville, Tennessee.

CONDITION: Original oval canvas has been laid on a later canvas and may have been cut down to fit the frame. A few visible holes or punctures to canvas, some of which have been in-painted, including repair on subject's forehead, approximately 1" a tear at shoe area, approximately 1", and a tear on the left side on the quilt, approximately 1 1/2". Overall craquelure and grime. Significant area of inpainting above subjects right shoulder, approximately 1.5" dia; and to the left of the sitter, approximately 1" H x 1.5" W, and some scattered inpainting throughout. See UV light photos for reference. Frame has worn some abrasions to the perimeter of the work. Some loss to gilding and cracks to frame.