This volume offers a fuller picture of Allston's life than any other biography yet published. It also contains descriptions of all his artistic productions and writings, and citations to all the books he owned. In the notes, his paintings and writings--which are vitally related--are for the first time collated.

Washington Allston (1779-1843), the first major American artist trained in Europe, produced important paintings, explored sculpture and architecture, and published poetry and art criticism. On his return to America he became influential in the cultural and intellectual life of New England. Allston "knew everyone" and corresponded with many of the leading figures of his day, including Wordsworth, Longfellow, Irving, Sully, and Morse.Nathalia Wright's edition is the most comprehensive work to date on Allston, bringing together all known letters by and to him and describing his principal activities in years for which correspondence is lacking. Allston holds an important place in the history of American culture and European art and has long deserved such a volume, which offers a fascinating view of the world of arts and letters during the early American flowering.

Excerpt from The Life and Letters of Washington Allston About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1892 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXX. LETTEBS FROM HORATIO GREENOUGH EULOGIZING Allston's CHARACTER AND COMMENTING ON HIS WORKS.--A LETTER FROM W. W. STORY, SUPPLEMENTED BY A TRIBUTE TO ALLSTON IN VERSE. Both the personal and the artistic sides of Allston are eloquently testified to in the two following letters from Horatio Greenough to R. H. Dana, Sr.: "paris, September 21, 1848. "My Dear Sir: Your letter of the 13th ult. has just now reached me, and has been a great relief to me. The thought of having been so near Allston at the time of his death, yet not with him, distressed me. I longed for a voice from one of you, to hear what you have now told me. What would I not have borne to have the memory which your daughter will ever retain of having listened to the last breathings of his blessed spirit! . . . But I knew all that I was enjoying when Allston lived. I can truly say that I heard him as an angel, and that when far from him he exercised over me a power no other man ever did. "In my eagerness to do something, I wrote to Mr. Quincy and to Mr. Gray to beg that they would use their influence to prevent tampering with the unfinished work which Allston had left. I tried to make them feel that works like his are always finished, because the first lines that declared his intention were a whole, and never finished, because the last agony of elaboration was but an approximation to his thought. I wished them to understand that instead of endeavoring to help him, our task is but to receive gratefully and cherish as it is all that came from him. "I can fully realize the anxiety with which you shrink from undertaking his biography. As a man you can record him--I know you will do it--worthily! As an artist you cannot record him! You will see that the news of his decease...