Owen Swiny
Owen Swiny (various spellings, including Owen McSwiny and Owen Mac Swiny, born 1676, near Enniscorthy, Ireland — died 2 October 1754) was an Irish-born playwright, theatre manager, and art dealer, who spent much of his life in London but with a twenty-year debt-driven exile in France and Italy.
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Quotes edit
- The fellow is whimsical and varys his prices every day; and he that has a mind to have any of his works must not seem too fond of it, for he' be ye worse treated for it both in price and painting too.
- quoted by George A. Simonson in (January 1922)"Antonio Canal". The Burlington Magazine 40 (226): 36–41. (quote from pp. 39–40, taken from a letter by Owen Swiny to the 2nd Duke of Richmond, concerning Canaletto)
Quotes about Swiny edit
Talking of the great difficulty of obtaining authentick information for biography, Johnson told us, 'When I was a young fellow I wanted to write the Life of Dryden, and in order to get materials, I applied to the only two persons then alive who had seen him ; these were old Swinney, and old Cibber. Swinney's information was no more than this, "That at Will's coffee-house Dryden had a particular chair for himself, which was set by the fire in winter, and was then called his winter-chair ; and that it was carried out for him to the balcony in summer, and was then called his summer-chair." ...'
- James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Volume II.—(1776–1784). London: H. Frowde. 1904. pp. 51–52.
