Maud Butler Falkner, c.1901

FALKNER, Maud Butler (1871-1960). Untitled painting of William Faulkner at age four. [Oxford, Mississippi, c.1901.]

A charming painting of a young William Faulkner, shown in profile, executed by his mother. Maud Butler Falkner (William would change the spelling to "Faulkner"), a mother of four, worked in Oxford, Mississippi, painting portraits of family members and local townsfolk. By account of her granddaughter, Dean Faulkner Wells, she painted just about everything she could find, including flowers on the kitchen cabinet and the bottoms of her children's drinking glasses as rewards for finishing their milk. Even though William is quite young in the present portrait, its likeness to the more familiar grown Faulkner is undeniable. Of her son, Maud always had absolute and unshakeable faith, insisting on his genius when others deemed him a failure. Dean Faulkner Wells was the daughter of William's youngest brother, Dean Swift Faulkner, who died tragically in a plane crash before she was born. No other childhood paintings of William Faulkner are known. See Faulkner: A Biography by Joseph Blotner (1984) and William Faulkner and Southern History by Joel Williamson (1993).

265 x 230mm, oil on canvas, laid down to later linen (trimmed from a larger canvas, with remnants of hand rule in graphite evident at lower edge; some areas of infill). Framed. Provenance: Maud Butler Falkner, 1871-1960 (by descent to:) – Dean Faulkner Wells, 1936-2011.