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 wri ...

, 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

Allston was born on a rice plantation on the Waccamaw River near Georgetown, South Carolina. 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 Kingdom of Great Britain, British for ...

. 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, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...

. 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 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 ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

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 - Landscape with Lake (1804)

Washington Allston - Italian Landscape - Google Art Project

Washington Allston - Elijah in the Desert - Google Art Project

From 1803 to 1808, he visited the great museums of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 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), ma ...

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 ...

, 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. Chann ...

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, a ...

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 membership libraries, for which patrons pay a yearly subscription fee to use Athenaeum services. The institution was founded in ...

. 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 Confederati ...

), the sister of the novelist Richard Henry Dana Sr.; 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, 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 Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, nea ...

" because his style resembled the great Venetian

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

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 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 tran ...

, 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 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, be ...

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 pa ...

is named after him, as is Allston Way, in the "Poets Corner" neighborhood of Berkeley, California. Dana-Allston grave

Gallery

Image:Storm Rising at Sea.jpg, ''Storm Rising at Sea'', 1804, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts Image:Moonlit Landscape.jpg, ''Moonlit Landscape'', 1809, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 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, adj ...

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is List of municipalities in South Carolina, the second-largest ...

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 ...

'', 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) from c. 1818 Image:1819 Beatrice byWashingtonAllston MFABoston.jpeg, ''Beatrice'', 1819, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 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

'' 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

, Washington, D

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 papers
a
Houghton Library
Harvard University
Washington Allston at American Art Gallery
* * * *
Washington Allston letter fragment, 1818 Mar. 2
from 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