Coming from a family of artists, he learned painting techniques in the atelier of his uncle Leopold Carl Müller, an eminent Orientalist painter.
Between 1885 and 1892, he became part of art history, working for Queen Victoria, and in 1886 he traveled to India, going through Afghanistan and Kashmir. The Crown entrusted him with an assignment as prestigious as it was challenging: on his trip through the Empire, Swoboda was to depict the local population through portraits of local rulers and notables.
The result was a full gallery of portraits of unusual veracity and intensity, still part of the Queen’s Treasury today.
