Alexander Pope was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1849. Although he briefly studied sculpture, he essentially taught himself how to paint. Pope's personal interest in hunting was a significant aspect of his artistic persona, and his studio was full of related paraphernalia. "The Wild Swan," produced in a sportsman's setting, suggests both artistic ambition and the artist's own love of the hunt. Pope's work helped popularize this type of still-life painting in late nineteenth-century America.

"The Wild Swan" was owned for many years by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In the early twentieth century it came to be known as The Trumpeter Swan, perhaps in response to the suggestion that the painting was intended as a warning of the imperiled status of trumpeter swans, who were then close to extinction (the population has since rebounded and their numbers are increasing).