Charles Willson Peale
Major John Swan
1787
Scroll
Charles Willson Peale
Major John Swan
1787
Physical Qualities
Oil on canvas, Sight: 35 1/2 × 26 1/2 in. (90.2 × 67.3 cm.)
Framed: 43 1/2 × 34 1/2 × 4 1/8 in. (110.5 × 87.6 × 10.5 cm.)
Credit Line
The Mary Frick Jacobs Collection
Object Number
1938.241
Charles Willson Peale captured the likeness of John Swan (1750 – 1821) as a prosperous, self-confident Baltimorean. Having emigrated from Scotland to Maryland and served with distinction in the American Revolution, Swan settled in Baltimore. There, he was named president of the Maryland branch of the Bank of the United States. Swan holds a folded letter in his left hand, while an inkstand on a stack of papers in the background suggests a busy man interrupted while at his correspondence. Eventually, Swan’s great-granddaughter, Mary Frick Jacobs, gave this portrait and its pendant image of Mrs. Swan [# 1] to the BMA.
Baltimore Museum of Art by bequest, 1938; Mary Frick Jacobs (1851-1905), Baltimore, MD by purchase, 1885; Mrs. Robert Swan by descent; Major John Swan, Annapolis, MD.
The Peabody Galleries, Baltimore, Loan Exhibition Inaugurated by The Friends of Art, Jan. 4-24, 1922, n.p., no. 80 (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. 68, no. 65.
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. 38.
PAFA, Philadelphia, "Exhibition of Portraits by Charles Willson Peale and James Peale and Rembrandt Peale," Apr. 11-May 9, 1923, p. 68, no. 65.
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. 38.
Sona K. Johnston, "American Painting 1750-1900 from the Collection of The Baltimore Museum of Art," 1983, pp. 114-115, ill. p. 115.
On View at the BMA
