John Shackleton
Illustration — George II by John Shackleton, 1758 (Foundling Hospital) – this image was given by the artist in May 1758, in return for which he was elected a governor and guardian of the hospital John Shackleton (died 16 March 1767) was a British painter and draughtsman who produced history paintings and portraits. His parents and origins are unknown.
John Shackleton
John Shackleton (died 1767) · Public domain
- Died
- 1767 · London.
- Nationality
- United Kingdom
- Occupation
- painter · architect
- Fields
- history
- Languages
- English
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Illustration — George II by John Shackleton, 1758 (Foundling Hospital) – this image was given by the artist in May 1758, in return for which he was elected a governor and guardian of the hospital John Shackleton (died 16 March 1767) was a British painter and draughtsman who produced history paintings and portraits. His parents and origins are unknown.
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Note VALÉORINE
John Shackleton (died 1767) was an architect and painter, of British nationality. The architect died in London. John Shackleton worked in London.
The work spans history. Languages used include English. Works are held at British Museum, National Galleries Scotland and National Portrait Gallery, among others.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 01 October 2026
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wikidata · Q3809609 · wikipedia · John Shackleton
In this article
Life
Life
He was a member of the 1755 committee that drew up the first proposal for siting a royal academy in London. On 8 March 1758 he was elected to be a member of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, then in its infancy. He exhibited at the Free Society of Artists from 1763 to 1766. Among the legatees of his will, dated 8 March 1767, were his ‘dear friend Mrs Sarah Rice’, ‘two marble heads said to be done by Bernini to my intimate friend Mr Robt [D?]ossie of Wardour Street, Soho’, and ‘a half-length picture of a Lady by Vandyke and a small landscape by Gaspar Poussin to John Bristow Esqr Keeper of His Majesties Lions in the Tower’.
Marriage and issue
Marriage and issue
On 25 October 1742 (as a parishioner of St George's, Hanover Square, London) he married Mary Ann Regnier.
John Shackleton (d.1767) - Thomas Kinaston (d.1752) - 1151375 - National Trust
John Shackleton · Art UK
John Shackleton (d.1767) - 'Count' James 'Jimmy' Dagnia (1708-1709–1755) - 1401252 - National Trust
John Shackleton · Art UK
Output
The recorded working language is English. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are history. Places of work recorded in the authority are London. Work by John Shackleton is recorded in the collections of National Galleries Scotland, National Portrait Gallery, British Museum and Victoria Gallery & Museum.
• Illustration — Henry Pelham, by Shackleton Shackleton painted several surviving portraits, for example of Henry Pelham (National Portrait Gallery), William Windham (1717–1761; now at Felbrigg Hall, Norfolk), and of John Bristowe, steward to the first duke of Newcastle (now in the Reitlinger Museum of Fine Art, Maidenhead). From 1749 he was Principal Painter in Ordinary to George II and George III. He continued to be paid for portraits of the king and queen up even during 1765–6, when their official portraits were being done by Allan Ramsay. Several examples of his and his studio's output of royal portraits survive – one of George II dated 1755 is in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh; another of George II in Room 2 of the British Museum, London (commissioned by the museum in 1759 – the Museum also holds engravings after his paintings), along with two more of George II in the Royal Collection and others in Fishmongers' Hall, London, and Maidenhead Museum.
Primary material
Documents and archives
scholarly publication
- 1605a, 1767-04-10, SHACKLETON (John), painter, Art Sales Catalogues Online
Scholarly · Crossref registry
- Shackleton, John (d. 1767), portrait painter, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2004
reference work
- “John Shackleton”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q3809609: John Shackleton
General reference · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Redgrave, S. A Dictionary of Artists of the English School: Painters, Sculptors, Architects, Engravers and Ornamentists: with Notices of Their Lives and Work. G. Bell and sons. 388. 1878.
- 2.Ormond, R. The Face of Monarchy: British Royalty Portrayed. Phaidon. 30. 1977. 9780714817620.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 11
- J. R. Fawcett-Thompson, ‘The elusive Mr. Shackleton: light on the principal painter in ordinary to King George II and George III’, The Connoisseur, 165 (1967), 232–9
- B. Stewart and M. Cutten, The dictionary of portrait painters in Britain up to 1920 (1997), 417 · Waterhouse, 18c painters, 341
- J. Kerslake, National Portrait Gallery: early Georgian portraits, 1 (1977), 91, 93, 101, 204, 208–9
- O. Millar, The Tudor, Stuart and early Georgian pictures in the collection of her majesty the queen, 2 vols. (1963), vol. 1, 26, 150; vol. 2, nos. 567–8
- O. Millar, The later Georgian pictures in the collection of her majesty the queen, 1 (1969), xiii n.15, xli
- Horace Walpole, Anecdotes of painting in England: with some account of the principal artists, ed. James Dallaway, [rev. and enl. edn], 2 (1826), 711
- Samuel Redgrave, Artists
- John Chaloner Smith, British Mezzotinto Portraits, 1 (1878), 317; 2 (1879), 677–8
- Engraved Brit. ports., 1.245; 2.298, 456; 3.437
- B. Nicholson, The treasures of the Foundling Hospital, with a catalogue raisonné based on a draft catalogue by John Kerslake (1972), 32, 34, 50, 78, no. 74
- will, PRO, PROB 11/928, fols. 48r–49r
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Institutional witnessscholarly publication
Shackleton, John (d. 1767), portrait painter, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004Crossref registry
Institutional witnessreference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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