Henry Inman
James Swan
1827
Physical Qualities
Oil on canvas, Framed: 40 × 35 × 3 3/4 in. (101.6 × 88.9 × 9.5 cm.)
Unframed: 29 1/4 × 24 1/4 in. (74.3 × 61.6 cm.)
Credit Line
The Mary Frick Jacobs Collection
Object Number
1938.237
Portrait of James Swan by Henry Inman, c. 1833. Oil on canvas. James Swan (1792-1859) was the son of Major John Swan of Scotland and later, Baltimore, and his wife Elizabeth Maxwell. In 1818, he married Elizabeth Donnell. James Swan was president of the Merchants Bank of Baltimore. Seated with one arm over a chairback, Swan has brown hair, blue eyes, and a ruddy complexion. He wears a black coat, pale gray waistcoat, white shirt, and black neckcloth. The under-drawing visible in the area of the nose and mouth, together with the somewhat sketchy brushwork in the face and background, suggest that the portrait is unfinished.
Baltimore Museum of Art by bequest, 1938; Mary Frick Jacobs (1851-1905), Baltimore, MD by descent, 1905; Philip Barton Key II (1818-1859) and Ellen Swan Key (1818-1855), Baltimore, MD likely by descent, 1859; James (1796-1859) and Elizabeth Donnell Swan (1801-1836), Baltimore, MD by commission
BMA, "A Century of Baltimore Collecting, 1840-1940," June 6-Sept. 1, 1941, p. 70
Sona K. Johnston, "American Painting 1750-1900 from the Collection of The Baltimore Museum of Art," 1983, p. 89.
