William Shackleton, portrait and landscape painter, was born in Bradford, the son of a paper manufacturer and merchant. He was educated at Bradford Grammar School then studied art at Bradford Technical College. In 1893 he won a scholarship to study at the National Art Training School (later renamed The Royal College of Art), where in 1896 he gained a British Institute Scholarship, enabling him to study in Paris and in Italy.

On returning to London he took a studio with Philip Connard, the decorative and portrait painter, in Chelsea. After 1914 he moved to Malham, Yorkshire, which became the subject of his later landscapes. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, Leicester Galleries, Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Grosvenor Gallery, Goupil Gallery, International Society of Sculptors, Painters & Gravers, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, London Salon, Manchester Academy of Fine Arts, New Gallery, Royal Society of British Artists, Royal Hibernian Academy, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, Royal Institute of Oil Painters and at the New English Art Club, who elected him a member in 1909. He also represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1910 and again in 1922.