Washington Allston (November 5, 1779 – July 9, 1843) was an American painter and
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
, born in
Waccamaw Parish,
South Carolina
)''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
. Allston pioneered America's Romantic movement of landscape painting. He was well known during his lifetime for his experiments with dramatic subject matter and his bold use of light and atmospheric color. While his early artworks concentrate on grandiose and spectacular aspects of nature, his later pieces represent a more subjective and visionary approach.
Biography
![Washington Allston by Gilbert Stuart](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Washington_Allston_by_Gilbert_Stuart.jpeg)
Allston was born on a rice plantation on the
Waccamaw River
The Waccamaw River is a river, approximately 140 miles (225 km) long, in southeastern North Carolina and eastern South Carolina in the United States. It drains an area of approximately 1,110 square miles (2886 km²) in the coastal plain ...
near
Georgetown, South Carolina
Georgetown is the third oldest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina and the county seat of Georgetown County, South Carolina, Georgetown County, in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census ...
. His mother Rachel Moore had married Captain William Allston in 1775, though her husband died in 1781, shortly after the
Battle of Cowpens
The Battle of Cowpens was an engagement during the American Revolutionary War fought on January 17, 1781 near the town of Cowpens, South Carolina, between U.S. forces under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan and British forces under Lieutenant Colo ...
. Moore remarried to Dr. Henry C. Flagg, the son of a wealthy shipping merchant from
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...
.
Named in honor of the leading American general of the Revolution, Washington Allston graduated from
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
in 1800 and moved to
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...
for a short time before sailing to
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
in May 1801.
He was admitted to the
Royal Academy Schools
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...
in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
in September, when painter
Benjamin West
Benjamin West, (October 10, 1738 – March 11, 1820) was a British-American artist who painted famous historical scenes such as '' The Death of Nelson'', ''The Death of General Wolfe'', the '' Treaty of Paris'', and '' Benjamin Franklin Drawin ...
was then the president.
![Washington Allston - Elijah in the Desert - Google Art Project](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Washington_Allston_-_Elijah_in_the_Desert_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
From 1803 to 1808, he visited the great museums of
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
and then, for several years, those of
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, where he met
Washington Irving
Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...
in Rome and
Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake ...
, his lifelong friend. In 1809, Allston married Ann Channing, sister of
William Ellery Channing
William Ellery Channing (April 7, 1780 – October 2, 1842) was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and, along with Andrews Norton (1786–1853), one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. Channi ...
.
Samuel F. B. Morse
Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor and painter. After having established his reputation as a portrait painter, in his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph ...
was one of Allston's art pupils and accompanied Allston to Europe in 1811. After traveling throughout western Europe, Allston finally settled in London, where he won fame and prizes for his pictures.
Allston was also a published writer. In London in 1813, he published ''The Sylphs of the Seasons, with Other Poems'', republished in
Boston, Massachusetts, later that year. His wife died in February 1815, leaving him saddened, lonely, and homesick for America.
In 1818, he returned to the United States and lived in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
, for twenty-five years. He was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
in 1826.
He was the uncle of the artists
George Whiting Flagg
George Whiting Flagg (June 26, 1816 – January 5, 1897) was an American painter of historical scenes and genre pictures. He was from a family of artists including his brother, Jared Bradley Flagg, and uncle Washington Allston, with whom both br ...
and
Jared Bradley Flagg
Jared Bradley Flagg (June 16, 1820 – September 25, 1899) was an American painter.
Early life
Flagg was born on June 16, 1820, in New Haven, Connecticut. He was a son of Martha ( née Whiting) Flagg (1792–1875) and Henry Collins Flagg, the o ...
, both of whom studied painting under him.
The first American exhibition of Allston's work was in 1827 when twelve of his paintings were shown at the
Boston Athenæum
The Boston Athenaeum is one of the oldest independent libraries in the United States. It is also one of a number of subscription library, membership libraries, for which patrons pay a yearly subscription fee to use Athenaeum services. The instit ...
.
In 1830 Allston married Martha Remington Dana (daughter of Chief Justice
Francis Dana
Francis Dana (June 13, 1743 – April 25, 1811) was an American Founding Father, lawyer, jurist, and statesman from Massachusetts. He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1777–1778 and 1784. A signer of the Articles of Confederat ...
), the sister of the novelist
Richard Henry Dana Sr.
Richard Henry Dana Sr. (November 15, 1787 – February 2, 1879) was an American poet, critic and lawyer. His son, Richard Henry Dana Jr., also became a lawyer and author.
Biography
Richard Henry Dana was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Novem ...
; Dana was a cousin of Allston's first wife.
In 1841, he published ''Monaldi,'' a romance illustrating Italian life, and in 1850, a volume of his ''Lectures on Art, and Poems''.
Allston died on July 9, 1843, at age 63. Allston is buried in
Harvard Square
Harvard Square is a triangular plaza at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street and John F. Kennedy Street near the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The term "Harvard Square" is also used to delineate the busin ...
, in "the Old Burying Ground" between the
First Parish Church and
Christ Church.
Recognition
Allston was sometimes called the "American
Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...
" because his style resembled the great
Venetian Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
artists in their display of dramatic color contrasts. His work greatly influenced the development of U.S. landscape painting. Also, the themes of many of his paintings were drawn from literature, especially Biblical stories.
His artistic genius was much admired by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...
was strongly influenced by his paintings and poems, but so were both
Margaret Fuller
Sarah Margaret Fuller (May 23, 1810 – July 19, 1850), sometimes referred to as Margaret Fuller Ossoli, was an American journalist, editor, critic, translator, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movemen ...
and
Sophia Peabody, wife of
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion.
He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...
.
The influential critic and editor
Rufus Wilmot Griswold
Rufus Wilmot Griswold (February 13, 1815 – August 27, 1857) was an American anthologist, editor, poet, and critic. Born in Vermont, Griswold left home when he was 15 years old. He worked as a journalist, editor, and critic in Philadelphia, New Y ...
dedicated his famous anthology ''
The Poets and Poetry of America'' to Allston in 1842. Poet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...
, 17 years after Allston's death, wrote that: "One man may sweeten a whole time. I never pass through Cambridge Port without thinking of Allston. His memory is the
quince
The quince (; ''Cydonia oblonga'') is the sole member of the genus ''Cydonia'' in the Malinae subtribe (which also contains apples and pears, among other fruits) of the Rosaceae family (biology), family. It is a deciduous tree that bears hard ...
in the drawer and perfumes the atmosphere."
Boston painter
William Morris Hunt
William Morris Hunt (March 31, 1824September 8, 1879) was an American painter.
Born into the political Hunt family of Vermont, he trained in Paris with the realist Jean-François Millet and studied under him at the Barbizon artists’ colony, bef ...
was an admirer of Allston's work, and in 1866 founded the Allston Club in Boston, and in his arts classes passed on to his students his knowledge of Allston's techniques.
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' cites Allston as the first to use the term ''Objective Correlative'' in 1850.
["objective correlative, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2021.] The term, subsequently made famous by T.S Eliot in essay on ''Hamlet'' (1919), denotes a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of a particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked.
The west
Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood of
Allston
Allston is an officially recognized neighborhood within the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was named after the American painter and poet Washington Allston. It comprises the land covered by the zip code 02134. For the most part ...
is named after him, as is Allston Way, in the "Poets Corner" neighborhood of Berkeley, California.
Gallery
Image:Storm Rising at Sea.jpg, ''Storm Rising at Sea'', 1804, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
, Massachusetts
Image:Moonlit Landscape.jpg, ''Moonlit Landscape'', 1809, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
, Massachusetts
Image:Allston, Washington - Coast Scene on the Mediterranean, oil on canvas, 1811.jpg, ''Coast Scene on the Mediterranean'', 1811, Columbia Museum of Art
The Columbia Museum of Art is an art museum in the American city of Columbia, South Carolina.
History
The Columbia Museum of Art was originally in the 1908 private residence of the city's Taylor family. Located on Senate Street in Columbia, ad ...
, Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 census, it is the second-largest city in South Carolina. The city serves as the county seat of Richland County, and a portion of the city ...
Image:1811 PoorAuthor RichBookseller byWashingtonAllston MFABoston.jpeg, ''The Poor Author and the Rich Bookseller'', 1811
Image:Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Washington Allston retouched.jpg, ''Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poe ...
'', 1814, Dove Cottage
Dove Cottage is a house on the edge of Grasmere in the Lake District of England. It is best known as the home of the poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy Wordsworth from December 1799 to May 1808, where they spent over eight years of ...
, Wordsworth Museum, Grasmere, England
Image:1815 DonnaMencia byWashingtonAllston MFABoston.jpeg, ''Donna Mencia in the Robber's Cavern'', 1815
File:Washington Allston - Hermia and Helena - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Hermia and Helena'', (from A Midsummer Night's Dream
''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...
) from c. 1818
Image:1819 Beatrice byWashingtonAllston MFABoston.jpeg, ''Beatrice'', 1819, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
Image:1831 SpanishGirl byWashingtonAllston MMA.jpg, '' The Spanish Girl in Reverie'', 1831
File:Two Artists in the Old Library, Washington Allston's Picture, 'Jacob's Dream', Hanging over the Fireplace ('The Artist and the Amateur').jpeg, ''Two Artists in the Old Library, Washington Allston's Picture, 'Jacob's Dream', Hanging over the Fireplace ('The Artist and the Amateur')'', J. M. W. Turner, 1827
File:William Ellery Channing by Allston.jpg, ''Portrait of William Ellery Channing
William Ellery Channing (April 7, 1780 – October 2, 1842) was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and, along with Andrews Norton (1786–1853), one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. Channi ...
''
File:Washington Allston, American - Scene from Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" (Katharina and Petruchio) - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Scene from Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew"'' (Katharina and Petruchio)
Additional works
* ''A Landscape after Sunset'', c. 1819,
Corcoran Gallery of Art
The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University.
Overview
The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design ...
,
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
References
Sources
*
Corcoran Gallery of Art
The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University.
Overview
The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design ...
, Washington, D
Further reading
* Allston, Washington, ''Lectures on Art and Poems'', 1850 (facsimile ed., with ''Monaldi'', 1841, 1967, Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, ).
External links
*
*
s:Page:LA2-NSRW-1-0074.jpg, Washington Allston in the New Students Reference Work.
Google Art Project Washington Allston
Guide to Washington Allston's papersa
Houghton Library Harvard University
Washington Allston at American Art Gallery*
*
*
*
Washington Allston letter fragment, 1818 Mar. 2from the Smithsonian
Archives of American Art
The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...
Profile on Royal Academy of Arts Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allston, Washington
1779 births
1843 deaths
Poets from South Carolina
18th-century American painters
18th-century American male artists
American male painters
19th-century American painters
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
People from Georgetown County, South Carolina
Painters from South Carolina
Harvard College alumni
Poets from Massachusetts
Writers from Boston
American expatriates in the United Kingdom
American expatriates in France
American expatriates in Italy
Associates of the Royal Academy
Alumni of the Royal Academy Schools
19th-century American male artists