Samuel Shaver (Tennessee, 1816-1878) portrait of Winifred Berry Benson of Culpeper, VA, oil on canvas, laid on board. The subject is depicted seated in a red chair wearing a dark dress with a white lace collar and matching cap, hands crossed in her lap and gold spectacles on her head. Housed in a carved gilt wood frame with an oval opening and beaded edge with stenciled spandrels. Includes Easter greeting cruciform card from the sitter or a relative. Sight: 29 1/2" H x 24" W. Framed: 36 3/4" H x 31 1/4" W. Biography of the sitter: Winifred Berry Benson was the daughter of James Benson and Dulcibella Berry. She married Captain James Richards (1774-1844), of Culpeper County, Virginia, circa 1799. They had seven children, including Harriet Somerville Richards, born March 12, 1820 at Culpeper County, VA, who married Philip Smith Hale, son of George Hale and Margaret Hamilton, on September 3, 1846 at Culpeper County, VA, and had ten children. Harriet appeared on the census of June 24, 1880 at Rogersville, Hawkins County, Tennessee, USA, as a widow. Harriet died on January 24, 1908 at Rogersville, Hawkins County, Tennessee, at age 87. She was buried Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Rogersville, Hawkins County, TN. (source: http://pembertonfamily.com/history/koplend/richards001.htm). Artist Biography (Courtesy of James C. Kelly, Virginia Historical Society): Portraitist Samuel M. Shaver was born in Sullivan County, the son of David Shaver and Catherine (Barringer) Shaver. He may have been influenced by William Harrison Scarborough (1812-1871), a native-born Tennessee artist, four years Shaver's senior, who did portraits of Shaver's relatives. Shaver's earliest known painting dates to 1845, but he was probably painting before that time. For the next quarter-century, he was East Tennessee's standard portraitist. In 1851 Shaver was professor of drawing and painting at the Odd Fellows Female Institute in Rogersville. In 1852 he advertised in Greeneville and Knoxville papers; for several years thereafter his whereabouts are unknown. The death of his first wife in January 1856 recalled him to Rogersville, where he remained until the Civil War. At the outset of the war, pro-Confederate Shaver moved to Knoxville, where he became one of the founders of the East Tennessee Art Association. The association commissioned him to do portraits of fifteen Confederate leaders and generals, presumably from photographs. None of the portraits have been located, and perhaps they were never painted. From 1863 to 1868 Shaver lived and worked near Russellville. About 1868 he joined his mother-in-law and family in Jerseyville, Illinois, near St. Louis, where he continued painting. He died June 21, 1878. The Estate of Alice Wright Summers Hale, Rogersville, TN. Condition: Original canvas laid on board. Overall light craquelure. Old repairs to left side of subjects face and left margin. A circular area of loss upper right quadrant.