Paul Swan (1883-1972)
Born in Ashland, Illinois, Paul Swan was both a modern dancer and a prolific painter. He attended the Chicago Art Institute and was also hailed by Arthur Hammerstein as the “most beautiful man in the world”. As a portraitist, Swan’s illustrious sitters included Charles Lindbergh, Woodrow Wilson and Maurice Ravel. Late in his life he was the subject of two Andy Warhol documentary films. Swan’s most notable Southern commission was for a mural at Biloxi, Mississippi’s landmark Edgewater Hotel, recently destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. He passed away in 1972 in Bedford Hills, New York.
Information courtesy of Neal Auction Company