The Indian artist S. N. Swamy was from Mysore, India. He studied at the Sri Chamarajendra Technical Institute, Mysore, under the famous art teacher K. Keshavaiah, in 1928; under the patronage of King Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV; and at J. J. School of Arts, Bombay, in 1930. He then worked with several prominent arts institutions nationally and internationally, including the Central Lalitha Kala Academy and the Central Sangeeth Natak Academy. He was awarded the Lalitha Kala Academy Award in 1966 and the Padma Shri Award in 1969. Among the prominent figures he sketched are Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Albert Einstein, George Bernard Shaw, T. S. Elliot, Bertrand Russell, Wilson Churchill and Ingrid Bergman.