Johns Hopkins University Hospital
Don Swann Watercolor, c. 1940s

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Johns Hopkins Hospital
building detail building detail
cupola detail
Don Swann (1889-1954)
Johns Hopkins Hospital
Baltimore: c. 1940s
Watercolor on paper, mounted on board
Signed lower right
16 x 20 inches, overall
18.75 x 22.75 inches, framed
Provenance: The Etchcrafters Guild, Baltimore
Sold, please inquire as to the availability of similar items.

An original watercolor by the listed American artist Don Swann depicting a serene snowy winter view of the world-renowned Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. It features the three red brick buildings which remain from the compound built when the hospital was founded in 1889 -- the Queen Anne-style domed Administration building, flanked by what were originally the men's and women's private wards, facing Baltimore's Broadway. These buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The watercolor may have been a preparatory work for an etching as is suggested by its having been sold by the Etchcrafter's Guild.

This is one of three original Swann works, of the same period, style, and format with snow scenes of historic Maryland houses: Homewood, Johns Hopkins Hospital and The State House.

Don Swann studied art in Munich, Germany, and Italy, but spent most of his life in Baltimore. A prolific painter and etcher, he is best known for depictions of the American landscape, ships, trees, the U.S. Navy and college and university buildings. His work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Franklin D. Roosevelt, U.S. Naval Museum, J. P. Morgan, the Smithsonian Institute, and the Congressional Library. The Smithsonian Institute acquired 33 original etchings for the Division of Graphic Arts. After Swann's death, his son, Don Swann, Jr. continued to publish some of his father's etchings from the original plates.

Label Verso: "THE ETCHCRAFTERS GUILD, 4201 Linkwood Road, Baltimore 10 Maryland U.S.A., JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL, Original Water Color by Don Swann, Price $75.00."