Thomas Sully (or) Charles Bird King (attributed to) Thomas Sully, (1783-1872) Charles Bird King, (1785-1862) MRS. WILLIAM BIDDLE SHEPARD, NEE CHARLOTTE BUISTE CAZENOVE (1812-1839) oil on canvas laid to board, framed, unsigned H30" W25 1/2"

Provenance : Descended in the family to present owner from William Biddle Shepard (1799-1852). The family has always known this portrait to be by Thomas Sully.

Literature: National Society Colonial Dames of America, North Carolina. NORTH CAROLINA PORTRAIT INDEX 1700-1860. Chapel Hill, NC: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1963. Illustrated p.208. SIRIS: (Smithsonian Institute Research Information System), catalog # IAP 82010412

Other Notes: William Biddle Shepard (1799-1852) was born in New Bern, North Carolina, the son of Mary Williams Blount and William Shepard, noted public speaker and wealthy landowner. After graduating from University of Pennsylvania Shepard pursued a career as a banker and lawyer, and continued on to serve in the US House of Representatives (1828-1837), and several sessions in the North Carolina State Senate (1838-40, 1844, 1848-50). It was here that Shepard became a bitter opponent of Andrew Jackson and of slavery. Shepard married twice and fathered one child from each marriage. His first wife Charlotte Buiste Cazenove (sitter in this portrait; died in childbirth) He then married Annie Collins. (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography 5:329).