Historical information

This portrait is said to be in the technique of Alfred Bock, but the frame is dissimilar to the standard type on 80% of the collection in the Sale Museum.

Samuel Swan died in 1880. It is unclear where the portrait hung, as Swan died before the Mechanics' Institute was built.

Physical description

An unsigned portrait, oil on canvas, of Samuel J Swan. He is shown looking left. It is framed in a gold coloured plaster frame, with relatively simple trimming on corners.

The frame is chocked at the back with wooden wedges to hold canvas in place, and a framer's label appears at the top.

Inscriptions & markings

'Samuel J Swan / Gippsland Pioneer' on brass plate bottom front.
"Telephone 7231 Central / T.S. Glasier & Co Pty Ltd / Gallery of Art / Picture Frame Manufacturers &c / Union House / 284-6 Little Collins Street / No [in pencil] 2344, Melbourne"