# Jacques François Joseph Swebach artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/jacques-francois-joseph-swebach/
Profile generated: 2026-08-24T20:48:56.690Z
Quality: medium confidence, adequate sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1769-03-19
- Death date: 1823-12-10
- Nationality: French
- Common media: Painting, Drawing, Printmaking and engraving

## Portrait

![Jacques François Joseph Swebach](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Jacques_Fran%C3%A7ois_Joseph_Swebach-Desfontaines.jpg)
Louis-Léopold Boilly · CC0
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jacques_Fran%C3%A7ois_Joseph_Swebach-Desfontaines.jpg

## About Jacques François Joseph Swebach

Jacques François Joseph Swebach (1769–1823), also recorded as Swebach-Desfontaines and Fontaine, was a French painter, draftsman, and engraver born in Metz and active in Paris. Authority records associate him especially with military imagery, while biographical summaries identify genre and battle scenes among his recognized subjects. His documented practice extended across painting, drawing, and printmaking, which helps explain why collectors encounter his name on both paintings and works on paper. The Bibliothèque nationale de France records his participation in the Salon de la correspondance in 1783, the Exposition de la Jeunesse in 1783, 1788, and 1789, and the Salon du Louvre from 1791. IdRef also records his membership in the Académie des sciences de Metz in 1792. Because catalogues and authority files preserve several forms of his name—including Desfontaines, Swebach de Fontaine, and Fontaine—careful entity matching is important when researching cataloguing histories and auction records.

## Common works and media

Collectors may encounter paintings, drawings, engravings, and other prints catalogued under Swebach or one of his several alternate names. Military scenes are especially well supported by the authority sources, while battle and genre scenes also appear in collected biographical descriptions. Works should be researched by medium, subject, and name variant rather than assuming that records filed under Swebach-Desfontaines, Fontaine, or Desfontaines concern different artists.

## Market and appraisal context

Appraisal should first establish medium, object type, subject, and attribution. The BnF records painting, drawing, and printmaking in Swebach's practice, while IdRef and biographical summaries emphasize military, battle, and genre imagery. His many authority-file name variants can complicate searches and historic catalogue matching, so comparable records should be checked across Swebach, Swebach-Desfontaines, Fontaine, and related forms. The Appraisily artist page indicates a body of public auction records that may supply sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when individual records are available and sufficiently similar. The collected sources do not provide major-auction-house lot descriptions, condition reports, dimensions, provenance chains, edition statements, or a price chronology. They therefore support research categories and identity matching, not a price forecast or market-trend conclusion.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist-identity research with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. Source limitations are retained so identity evidence is not mistaken for an object-specific attribution or valuation.

## Sources

- Bibliothèque nationale de France: https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb14956600d
- IdRef: https://www.idref.fr/123332192
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/34725362/
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3158924
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500004312
- Wikipedia: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Fran%C3%A7ois_Joseph_Swebach-Desfontaines
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Fran%C3%A7ois_Joseph_Swebach-Desfontaines
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/jacques-francois-joseph-swebach/