Romantic Landscape
Title
Romantic Landscape
Subject
Landscape painting by Washington Allston from the William Whiting Collection
Description
Allston’s early Romantic Landscape came to the Library from the estate of William Whiting, Jr. This painting was exhibited at the Boston Athenaeum in 1853, while in Whiting’s possession. Born in Concord in 1813, William Whiting, Jr. was a prominent Boston lawyer. A member of Harvard College Class of 1833, he taught in Plymouth and Concord (at the Academy) before graduating from Harvard Law School (1838). He was made solicitor for the United States War Department in 1862. Elected to Congress in 1872, he died in Boston in 1873, before beginning his term of office.
Washington Allston—Romantic painter of landscapes, portraits, and historical, allegorical, and religious subjects—was born in South Carolina in 1779. He graduated from Harvard in 1800, sailed to London in 1801, studied at the Royal Academy under Benjamin West, then traveled to Paris, Switzerland, and Italy. He spent four years in Italy, where he met and grew close to Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Washington Irving. He returned to America in 1808 and married Ann Channing, sister of liberal minister William Ellery Channing.
Allston exerted a powerful influence over the Transcendentalists’ concepts of art and aesthetics. Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth Peabody, and many of their contemporaries wrote about him as one of the most important artists of his time.
Washington Allston—Romantic painter of landscapes, portraits, and historical, allegorical, and religious subjects—was born in South Carolina in 1779. He graduated from Harvard in 1800, sailed to London in 1801, studied at the Royal Academy under Benjamin West, then traveled to Paris, Switzerland, and Italy. He spent four years in Italy, where he met and grew close to Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Washington Irving. He returned to America in 1808 and married Ann Channing, sister of liberal minister William Ellery Channing.
Allston exerted a powerful influence over the Transcendentalists’ concepts of art and aesthetics. Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth Peabody, and many of their contemporaries wrote about him as one of the most important artists of his time.
Rights
Images © 2020 James E. Coutré
Creator
Washington Allston
Source
Part of the William Whiting Collection donated in 1890
Publisher
Concord Free Public Library
Date
1801-1803
Format
Oil on Canvas
Type
Painting
Identifier
2020-001-122
Coverage
30" x 37 1/2"
Citation
Washington Allston, “Romantic Landscape,” William Munroe Special Collections at the Concord Free Public Library, accessed April 1, 2023, https://sc.concordlibrary.org/items/show/2250.