Washington Allston
Washington Allston (born November 5, 1779 on the Brook Green Plantation on the Waccamaw River near Charleston , South Carolina , † July 9, 1843 in Cambridge, Massachusetts ) was an American history , portrait and landscape painter of Classicism and Romanticism as well Writer .
Life
Allston was the younger son of Captain William Allston, who had fought in the Revolutionary War under General Francis Marion , and his second wife, Rachel Moore. At the age of seven, Allston came to Newport (Rhode Island) at the Robert Roger's School in the spring of 1787 , where he a. a. first received artistic lessons from his school friend Edward Malbone . The painter Samuel King later taught him there .
In 1796 Allston began his studies at Harvard University in Cambridge (Massachusetts) , which he was able to successfully complete four years later. Allston then settled in Charleston as a freelance artist. But since no financial success wanted to set, Allston made a trip to Great Britain in 1801 and settled in London . As a student of the painter Benjamin West at the Royal Academy of Arts , Allston was able to successfully take part in an exhibition as early as 1802.
In November 1803 Allston went on a study trip to Paris with the painter John Vanderlyn . According to his own statements, Allston did not like it there (probably because of the political situation) and in early 1804 he traveled to Italy via Switzerland. At the beginning of 1805 he rented a room in the Villa Malta in Rome and soon made contact with the artistic circles active there. As a regular at the Antico Caffè Greco , Allston made the acquaintance of Asmus Carstens , Joseph Anton Koch , Gottlieb Schick and Bertel Thorvaldsen ; and Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Leslie and Washington Irving were among Allston acquaintances. During his time in Rome, Allston not only dealt with contemporary art ( Nazarenes ), he also studied the ancient masters.
In the spring of 1808 Allston returned to the United States and settled in Boston as a painter. There he married Ann Channing on June 19, 1809, a sister of Pastor Dr. William Ellery Channing . In 1811 Allston went back to London with his wife and student Samuel Morse . There he soon met William Wordsworth and Robert Southey through Coleridge , whom he later portrayed. With his painting "Dead man restored to life by touching the bones of the prophet Elisha" Allston had great success on the occasion of an exhibition and through various patrons there was also an initial financial success.
When his wife died on February 2, 1815, Allston fell into a deep depression from which he found difficult to recover. For over two years Allston hardly painted a picture and did not deal with any other art. In 1817 Allston was accepted as an "Associate" in the Royal Academy , in 1826 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences ; one year later as an honorary member ( Honorary NA ) of the National Academy of Design . In 1818 Allston left Great Britain, went back to Massachusetts and settled in Cambridgeport. Allston slowly began to paint again and on June 1, 1830, he married Martha Remington Dana there.
In 1839 a large solo exhibition with over 40 works by Allston took place in Boston; almost all of his works (in the USA) could be admired. Allston spent the last years of his life, repeatedly ailing, withdrawn and hardly productive. Washington Allston died in Cambridge on July 9, 1843 at the age of 63, and one day later he found his final resting place in the crypt of the Dana family in Cambridge cemetery.
plant
Allston's historical paintings are characterized by their loving execution and size of intention. In consideration of his connection to the Venetians, his compatriots call him the "American Titian". Meanwhile his endeavors often turn into the theatrical and mannered , and in many of his paintings, such as in the "Witch of Endor", in "Belshazzar's feast" and "Spalatro's vision of the bloody hand" etc., there is a tendency towards the mysterious and gruesome.
In addition to his remarkable artistic work, Allston also made a name for himself as a writer. In addition to the stories praised by the public and official art critics alike, Allston also published a number of works on art theory.
The best known of his poetic works are the "Sonnets", in which his sincere admiration for everything beautiful and noble and his warm love for human beings are expressed in a beneficial way, and the larger poem: "The sylphs of the seasons" (1813), a fantastic thought that expresses an extraordinary mastery over language. Something similar can be said about his story "Monaldi" (1842) or "Inez, the Spanish maid".
The writer Richard Henry Dana published Allston's "Lectures on art and poems" in 1850, and Moses F. Sweetser became Allston's first biographer in 1879.
Selection of works (paintings)
- Jacob's dream
- Elijah in the desert fed by the ravens
- The angel releasing St. Peter from prison
- Dead man restored to life by touching the bones of the prophet Elisha
- Witch of Endor
- Belshazzar's feast
- Spalatro's vision of the bloody hand
- Jason demanding to return to his father's kingdom (1807)
- Diana and her nymphs in the case (1805)
- Coast scene on the Mediterranean (1811)
- The valentine (1810)
- Saul
- Mirjam's chant
Factory selection (fonts)
- Sonnets
- The sylphs of the seasons (1813)
- Monaldi (1842)
- Inez, the Spanish maid
- Lectures on art and poems
- Nathalia Wright (Ed.): The correspondance of Washington Allston . University Press of Kentucks, Lexington, Ky 1993, ISBN 0-8131-1708-9
- Autobiographical works of Washington Allston. "Monaldi" and "The angel and the nightingale" . Scholars Facsimiles & Reprints, Delmar, NY 1991, ISBN 0-8201-1450-2 (Repr. Of the Boston 1841/1850 edition)
Individual evidence
- ^ Nationalacademy.org: Past Academicians "A" / Allston, Washington Honorary 1827 ( Memento of November 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed June 13, 2015)
literature
- David Bjelajac: Washington Allston, secret societies and the alchemy of Anglo-American painting . CUP, Cambridge, Mass. 1997, ISBN 0-521-43153-0
- William H. Geerds: A man of genius. The art of Washington Allston . The Leether Press, Yarmouth 1979, ISBN 0-87846-146-9
- Diane C. Johnson (Ed.): American symbolist art. 19th "poets in paint". Washington Allston, John La Farge, William Rimmer, George Innes and Albert P. Ryder . Mellen Books, Lewiston, NY 2004, ISBN 0-7734-6410-7
- Edgar P. Richardson: Washington Allston. Study of the romantic artist in America . University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ill. 1948
- Moses F. Sweetser: Allston. A biography . In: Ders .: Artist biographies . Houghton, Osgood
- 5. Fra Angelico, Murillo, Allston . 1880.
- Debra F. Weston: Smashing the monuments and saving the pedestales. Washington Allston and Edgar Allen Poe's mandate for the American artist . University of North Carolina Press, Greenboro, NC 1992 (Dissertation)
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Allston, Washington |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American painter and poet |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 5, 1779 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Charleston, South Carolina |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 9, 1843 |
| Place of death | Cambridge, Massachusetts |