Adelicia Acklen with Horse Bocephalus

  • Creator: William Browning Cooper (1811-1900)
  • Title: Adelicia Acklen with Horse Bocephalus
  • Date: 1845
  • Description: Portrait of a dark-haired young woman in elaborate riding dress, standing with a large horse against a treed landscape.
  • Historical Note: At the time this portrait was painted, Adelicia Hayes was married to her first husband, Isaac Franklin. The couple married in 1839 when Adelicia was 22 and Franklin was 50, In 1832, Franklin, one of the South's most successful slave traders, had built Fairvue, a fine home near Gallatin. In Adelicia, Franklin saw the opportunity to transition from slave trader to gentleman farmer. The couple had four children before Franklin died on the couple's Louisiana plantation in 1846. Upon his death, Adelicia became one of the wealthiest women in Tennessee, inheriting plantations in Louisiana as well as holdings in and around Nashville. She moved the family to Nashville and in 1849 married Joseph Acklen, a lawyer from Huntsville. This portrait is attributed to William Browning Cooper, who was active in Tennessee in the 1840s and 1850s. William studied at the National Academy of Design and painted portraits in New Orleans before going to Paris and Rome in the early 1840s. He returned to the US and established a studio in Memphis.
  • Institution: Belmont Mansion
  • Publisher: Digital Initiatives, James E. Walker Library, Middle Tennessee State University
  • URL: http://cdm15838.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/shades
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