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Gilbert Stuart (American, 1755–1828)
Hepzibah Clarke Swan, ca. 1806
Oil on wood; 32 5/8 x 26 1/2 in. (82.9 x 67.3 cm)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Bequest of Elizabeth Howard Bartol
27.539
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Hepzibah Clarke Swan (1757–1825) was conspicuous—in society, in politics, and in the lives of a great number of men, including Gilbert Stuart, who had her to thank for several plum commissions and a place to live in Boston. Cosmopolitan and intelligent, a devoted friend and a watchful parent, Madame Swan (as she was known) was charismatic, not least because of her money but also in good measure because of her personal charm. Her estranged husband, James, sat for Stuart in Philadelphia, and she commissioned portraits of her companions, Generals Henry Jackson and Henry Knox (cat. no. 80 in exhibition). But while this high-maintenance doyenne of Boston society enjoyed their attention, she was pendant to no one man, neither in her life nor in her portrait.
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