Biography of Francis Swaine (circa 1720-82)
English painter. Much of Swaine's early life and training is still unknown. In 1735 he was working as a Navy Office courier but whether this concerned any time spent at sea is unsure. Soon after, Swaine cast off this employ in order to become a marine painter by his marine art painting. A stylistic likeness between his work and that of the thriving and productive marine painter Peter Monamy (1681–1749) has prompted proposals, which Monamy might have been Swaine's teacher and the truth that he married Monamy’s daughter tends to hold up this. Their son Monamy Swaine (active circa 1769–94) was as well a marine painter. Swaine was further really influenced by the sample of Dutch 17th-century masters, from whose work he commonly drew. For instance, his painting of 'The yacht Royal Escape' is a version after a painting by Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633-1707; both in the National Maritime Museum, London). Swaine's new and blustery views of Thames shipping and sea images showed very popular. Between 1762 and 1782, he displayed 124 paintings with the Society of Artists and the Free Society of Artists. In 1764 and 1765 he won the Society for the Encouragement of Arts’ second prize medal for two successive years.
