Estuary Scene in a Calm

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Hospitality, Lancaster House

Little is known of the early life Francis Swaine, marine painter. In 1735, his name appeared as a messenger in a list of clerks and officers employed by the Treasurers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy. Swaine's work was strongly influenced by Peter Monamy, Charles Brooking and the earlier paintings of Willem van de Velde the younger. Most of Swaine’s output was small scale shipping subjects. He exhibited his work at the Free Society of Arts from 1761 until the end of his life and at the Incorporated Society of Artists exhibitions from 1762. For much of his life, Swaine lived near St. James’s Park, Westminster. He moved to Chelsea shortly before his death in 1782.

Places

Subjects

fishing boat, rowing boat, fisherman, genre, seascape/coastal scene, estuary, man, basket, flag, ship

Materials & Techniques

canvas, oil, oil painting

Artist

Francis Swaine (1725 - 1782)

Title

Estuary Scene in a Calm

Date

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

height: 33.00 cm, width: 45.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Sir Bruce Ingram, 1963

Provenance

Collection of journalist and newspaper editor Sir Bruce Stirling Ingram (1877-1963); stencilled at Christie’s, London, prior to Ingram’s sale of 5 June 1936 but not entered in the sale; purchased from Ingram by the Ministry of Works in 1963

GAC number

1456