Washington Allston

Washington Allston was an American painter often called the father of American Romanticism. Born in South Carolina in 1779, he trained in London and traveled in Europe, absorbing a love of dramatic subjects, rich color, and grand, imaginative scenes. He painted stormy landscapes, biblical and literary subjects, and moody, poetic images that aimed to stir deep feeling.

He was admired as much for his refined, cultivated personality as for his art, and he was friends with leading writers of his time. He spent years struggling with an enormous, unfinished biblical painting that haunted his later life. Allston brought a new emotional depth and imaginative reach to American painting, influencing the artists who came after him.