His elder brother, Archibald Campbell Swinton, four years his senior, pursued a career in law and politics,[1] but sisters, Catherine and Elizabeth, shared his interest in art.
His portraits were chiefly life-sized, boldly executed but graceful crayon drawings, although many of them were completed subsequently in oils, and frequently at full-length.
Swinton exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy in 1844, and his portraits were familiar objects there for thirty years.
Swinton was dependent on the vagaries of fashion for his vogue as a portrait-painter, and his portraits quickly lost their repute, although they will always retain their value as historical memorials.
In 1859 Swinton commissioned the construction of a lavish three-storey house in Warwick Square in Pimlico including a grand staircase with domed ceiling, ballroom and a huge conservatory with glass roof.