James Hamilton Shegogue

Self-Portrait, c. 1844. In the collection of the National Academy of Design

James Hamilton Shegogue (sometimes styled Shégogue) (February 22, 1806 – April 7, 1872) was an American painter. He was described as a "man of unusual education, a proficient linguist, and a scientific explorer" by one contemporary.

Shegogue was born in Ireland to George Alexander Shegog and his wife Catherine St. Clair Getty. He came to America at the age of eleven, having been sent for by family members who emigrated before him. He was then reared by a maiden aunt in Charleston, South Carolina and became a naturalized citizen in about 1835. The family was of French Huguenot extraction; Around 1833 he exhibited a painting titled An Old Straw Hat, currently unlocated, at the American Academy of Fine Arts; this was the first piece he showed publicly. Among the artists whose notice it attracted was John Trumbull. and an oil portrait is in the collection of the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Georgia. The portrait of Davy Crockett is at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Other pieces are owned by the City of New York, the New York Historical Society, and the Brooklyn Museum.