Like every child, John Macallen Swan was fascinated by the circus. However, it wasn't clowns, tamers or artists that fascinated him, but the elephants. Watching them and studying their movements in detail in order to paint and draw them afterwards was his passion. This did not go unnoticed, so his parents allowed him to attend Worcester School of Art and Lambeth School of Art. There, too, his talent was noticed: Sculptor William Silver Frith in 1872 encouraged young John to attend the Royal Academy in London.
Swan, however, was not particularly happy with the education there. Therefore, he went to Paris. During this study visit he met, among others, the sculptor in Emmanuel Fremiet, who mostly made animal sculptures. He took Swan to the "Jardin des Plantes" to study together not only the flora, but especially the fauna. They spent many hours observing and drawing butterflies, lizards and dragonflies. The fact that John Macallen Swan is famous and known today primarily for his paintings and sculptures of large, predatory and wild cats is due to the fact that after his return to London he moved into a studio in Acacia Road, which was very close to the zoo. Almost every day he visited the zoo and the enclosures of lions, tigers, jaguars and leopards. Sometimes he captured the noble creatures in watercolors, pastels or oil, sometimes in bronze.
Swan's works were widely exhibited, critically acclaimed, and purchased by private foundations and public collections during his lifetime. One of his greatest successes, however, was certainly winning gold medals for both his paintings and sculptures at the Paris Exposition of 1900. However, he was not able to enjoy his fame for long. John Macallen Swan died in 1910, shortly after accepting a commission to sculpt a larger-than-life bust of Cecil Rhodes and eight lions for a memorial in Cape Town. The memorial was completed posthumously.
Today, some of Swan's works are in the Tate Gallery. However, they are rarely shown. However, there is a statue of the "New Sculpture Movement" representative that can be visited at any time: The sculpture is titled "Boy with two Bear Cubs" and is located in London's Holland Park. But the artist also left his mark on the art world in a completely different way: His daughter Mary Alice, who came from his marriage to the child portrait artist Mary Ann Rankin, also became a sculptor.
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.jpg "Tigress by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Indian Leopards by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Orpheus, 1896 by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "A Shepherdess and her Flock by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Jaguar and Macaw by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Refugee by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "The Sirens, 1870-1910 by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Sirens by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "A lioness with her cubs near a dead black man by John Macallan Swan")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-903200).jpg "Bear")
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.jpg "Lion by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "A lioness with four nursing cubs by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Group of Singing and Music-Making Figures by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Refugee by John Macallan Swan")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1129490).jpg "Tigress Eating, c.1875 by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Sleeping Lion by Night by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Study of a Polar Bear")
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.jpg "Study of a Leopard, Lying on a Branch by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "A Lioness with Four Suckling Cubs, Called")
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.jpg "A Lioness by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "A Lioness with Her Cubs by a Dead Black Man, Named")
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.jpg "Tiger by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Tiger by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Polar Bears Watching for Seals at an Ice Hole by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Pastel Study of a Lion, c1900 by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Head of a Tiger by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "On the Alert - Lioness and Cubs, c1878-1910, 1912 by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "The Sirens by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "The Sirens by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Sleeping Lion by Night by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Wreckage, c1867-1910 by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Indian Leopards by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "The Goatherd by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "A Jaguar by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Polar Bears Climbing a Drifting Sloop by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Study of a Standing Leopard by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Lion by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Polar Bears by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Studies of a Recumbent Polar Bear by John Macallan Swan")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1387819).jpg "Andromeda (Sketch) by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Study of an Elephant by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Studies of a Leopard by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Edward Onslow Ford by John Macallan Swan")
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.jpg "Study of an Elephant by John Macallan Swan")
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