Cornelius Zwaan was a portrait and genre painter born in Amsterdam in 1882. He studied painting at the Ryks Academy Voor Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. His paintings were first introduced in the United States in 1909. Zwaan liked to depict Dutch genre scenes of mothers with their children. He was active in the Chicago and the Indianapolis area. His work was presented in a memorial at the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 1973.