Clement Nye Swift (1846 – March 29, 1918) was an American artist associated with the

Pont-Aven School Pont-Aven School (; ) encompasses works of art influenced by the Breton town of Pont-Aven and its surroundings. Originally the term applied to works created in the artists' colony at Pont-Aven, which started to emerge in the 1850s and lasted until ...

and known for his paintings of nautical themes and of life in

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

and

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

Biography

Swift was born in 1846 in Acushnet, Massachusetts, to Rhodolphus Nye Swift and Sylvia Hathaway. As a child, he attended the Friends Academy in

Dartmouth, Massachusetts Dartmouth (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ) is a coastal town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. Old Dartmouth was the first area of Southeastern Massachusetts to be settled by Europeans in 1652, primarily English. Dartmouth ...

. His early interest was in painting animals, and he moved to France to study painting at the

École des Beaux-Arts ; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centu ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He also studied with the artists Adolphe Yvon and Henri Harpignies. After the outbreak of the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

in 1870, he moved to

. He settled in the coastal town of

Pont-Aven Pont-Aven (; in Breton) is a commune in the Finistère department in the Brittany region in Northwestern France. Demographics Inhabitants of Pont-Aven are called in French. Pont-Aven absorbed the former commune of Nizon in 1954, which had ...

, where he joined the artistic community known the

. He lived there for ten years, and during this time he produced the majority of his paintings. Between 1872 and 1880, he exhibited his work at the

Paris Salon The Salon (), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. At the ...

. In 1881, Swift returned to Acushnet, Massachusetts, where he took up writing, producing a series of stories and poems. He married his cousin Annie Amelia Swift on October 15, 1895. He died March 29, 1918, and is buried in Acushnet Cemetery.

References

External links

Clement Nye Swift papers
at the New Bedford Whaling Museum {{DEFAULTSORT:Swift, Clement Nye 1846 births 1918 deaths 19th-century American painters 20th-century American painters American male painters American marine artists Pont-Aven painters People from Acushnet, Massachusetts 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists