Charles Willson Peale
Elizabeth Maxwell Swan (Mrs. John Swan)
1782
Physical Qualities
Oil on canvas, Sight: 35 3/8 × 26 1/2 in. (89.9 × 67.3 cm.)
Framed: 44 × 34 7/8 × 4 1/8 in. (111.8 × 88.6 × 10.5 cm.)
Credit Line
The Mary Frick Jacobs Collection
Object Number
1938.240
Portrait of Elizabeth Maxwell Swan (Mrs. John Swan) by Charles Wilson c. 1788. Oil on canvas. On July 12, 1787, John Swan married Elizabeth Maxwell (1762-1825), daughter of George Maxwell of Baltimore and Charles County, and his wife, Elizabeth Trippe of "Myrtle Grove," Talbot County, Maryland. Mrs. Swan is seated on a humpback Chippendale sofa upholstered in red damask, wearing an aqua dress trimmed with white lace and pearls, and a pink sash embroidered with gold. Pearls and a white ribbon are wound in her long brown hair, a small drawstring purse is on the sofa beside her, and she holds a leatherbound volume, Thomson's Seasons, a frequent attribute of Peale's ladies.
Baltimore Museum of Art by bequest, 1938; Mary Frick Jacobs (1851-1905), Baltimore, MD by purchase, 1886; Mrs. Robert Swan by descent
William Frederick (1817-1905) and Ann Elizabeth Swan Frick (1819-1889), Baltimore, MD likely by descent, 1859; James (1796-1859) and Elizabeth Donnell Swan (1801-1836), Baltimore, MD by commission
William Frederick (1817-1905) and Ann Elizabeth Swan Frick (1819-1889), Baltimore, MD likely by descent, 1859; James (1796-1859) and Elizabeth Donnell Swan (1801-1836), Baltimore, MD by commission
The Peabody Galleries, Baltimore, Loan Exhibition Inaugurated by The Friends of Art, Jan. 4-24, 1922, n.p., no. 79 (lent by Mrs. Henry Barton Jacobs);
PAFA, Philadelphia, "Exhibition of Portraits by Charles Willson Peale and James Peale and Rembrandt Peale," Apr. 11-May 9, 1923, P. 72, no. 69;
BMA, "A Century of Baltimore Collecting," 1840-1940, June 6-Sept. 1, 1941, p. 66;
Cincinnati Art Museum, "Paintings by the Peale Family," Oct. 1-31, 1954, p. 17, no. 39;
Washington College, Chestertown, MD, "Charles Willson Peale: Artist from Chestertown," May 7-16, 1971, n.p., no. 5
PAFA, Philadelphia, "Exhibition of Portraits by Charles Willson Peale and James Peale and Rembrandt Peale," Apr. 11-May 9, 1923, P. 72, no. 69;
BMA, "A Century of Baltimore Collecting," 1840-1940, June 6-Sept. 1, 1941, p. 66;
Cincinnati Art Museum, "Paintings by the Peale Family," Oct. 1-31, 1954, p. 17, no. 39;
Washington College, Chestertown, MD, "Charles Willson Peale: Artist from Chestertown," May 7-16, 1971, n.p., no. 5
Sona K. Johnston, "American Painting 1750-1900 from the Collection of The Baltimore Museum of Art," 1983, p. 116, ill. p. 115.
On View: American Wing Second Floor, Scott 08
