Jacob Eichholtz
Mrs. James Swan
1819-1834
Physical Qualities
Oil on canvas, Framed: 37 3/8 × 32 3/8 × 4 1/8 in. (94.9 × 82.2 × 10.5 cm.)
Unframed: 28 5/8 × 23 5/8 in. (72.7 × 60 cm.)
Credit Line
The Mary Frick Jacobs Collection
Object Number
1938.239
Portrait of Elizabeth Donnell Swan (Mrs. James Swan) by Jacob Eichholtz, c. 1825-1830. Oil on canvas. Elizabeth Donnell (1801-1836) was the daughter of John Donnell, a wealthy Baltimore merchant, and his wife, Ann Teackle Smith. In 1818, she married a prominent banker, James Swan, president of the Farmer’s Bank and later, of the Merchant’s Bank of Baltimore. She is shown wearing a white empire dress of dotted dimity-like material with lace at the neckline, a narrow, pale blue-green sash, and a pale blue shawl. Behind her, there is the suggestion of a deep red drapery. She has blue eyes, and her elaborately arranged hair is brown.
Baltimore Museum of Art by bequest, 1938; Mary Frick Jacobs (1851-1905), Baltimore, MD by gift, 1905; 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
BMA, "A Century of Baltimore Collecting, 1840-1940," June 6-Sept. 1, 1941, p. 70 (as by Thomas Sully)
Sona K. Johnston, "American Painting 1750-1900 from the Collection of The Baltimore Museum of Art," 1983, p. 58.
Inscribed: None