1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Swan, John Macallan

SWAN, JOHN MACALLAN (1847-1910), English painter and sculptor, received his art training first in England at the Worcester and Lambeth schools of art and the Royal Academy schools, and subsequently in Paris, in the studios of J. L. Gérôme and E. Frémiet. He began to exhibit at the Academy in 1878, and was elected associate in 1894 and academician in 1905. He was appointed a member of the Dutch Water-Colour Society in 1885; and associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1896 and full member in 1899. A master of the oil, water-colour and pastel mediums, an accomplished painter and a skilful draughtsman, he ranks also as a sculptor of distinguished ability. He has treated the human figure with notable power, but it is by his representations of the larger wild animals, mainly the felidae, that he chiefly established his reputation; in this branch of practice he has scarcely a rival. His picture “The Prodigal Son,” bought for the Chantrey collection in 1889, is in the National Gallery of British Art. He was awarded first class gold medals for painting and sculpture in the Paris Exhibition, 1900. He died on the 14th of February 1910.

See Sculpture; “The Work of J. M. Swan,” by A. L. Baldry, in The Studio, vol. xxii.; and Drawings of John M. Swan, R.A. (George Newnes, Ltd.).