The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1869-12-01

At college his fvorite subjects were
banditti, with the accessories of dark
woods and terrible solitudes-a taste
from which he soon recovered, and
which he used afterward to mention
with a smile. Not unfreguently, too,
he painted comic pieces, a branch
which also he early abandoned. When
he graduated from Harvard, IN | 800,
| he had probably gained as much
knowledge and skill as students of the
same age do who frequent, from early
youth. the studious of Paris End Rome;
and yet I question If, within ten miles
o his college, there were as many as
ten paintings of high excellence If
there was genius IN this, there was
also that which always accompanies
great genius plodding industry. go 81
The American artisfs Benjamin
West, was then living in London.
painting pictures for George the Third
he who had begun in his seventh
year to paint with brushes pulled
from q cats back. and with the red
and yellow paints which the Pennsyl-
vania Indians taught him to, mix.
The success of this artist, doubtless,
had its influence in giving young All
ston the courage to attempt a similar
career. West was then president of
the Royal Academy. In 1871. All
stoR went to London, and b s,me
student in the Academy, which led to
an intimacy with it's president. The
aged West received his young country.
man with benignity, and gave him for
three or four years access to the best
circles in London. In 1905, we find
the young artist at Rome, where oc-
CURED that happy meeting with
Washington Irving which is related
above. ~ t77'tl -Hlt- -tH -atf 3..s-s
Il He resided four wears at. Rome,
where he met with Danish Thorwald-
sen and English Colei idge, with both
OF whom he associated on terms of in
timacy. Coleridge, it is said, cherish
ed to the last kindly remembrance
of his joyous and profitable intercourse
with the gifted American. In 1909
he was settled in London. a married
man, his wife sister of Doctor Chan
nlng.4 In selecting Il subjects for
his pencil, he appears to have been in
fluenced by the taste of his friend
West. Among the subjects treated
by him at London were, The Dead
man Revived, Saint Peter Liberated
by the Angel, and Elijah in the vii
'lerness, all Of. which attracted at
tention, and were solo at prices
then considered high.
Allston appears to have had every
for great artist except one
stamina. As his fame in
creased IN England, his he ,lth, through
excessive toll, d clined and being des
olate from the loss Of his wife, he re-
turned home in 1918. and established
himself in Boston There he painted
The Prophet Jeremiah, Saul and the
Witch of Endor, Miriam Singing the
Song of Triumph and he condescend
ed also to execute several pictures on
! smaller scale, less ambitious, but not |
ess pleasing. Congress, in 1886.
lonored itself by inviting him to paint |
IN historical picture for the rotunda
IF the Capital but he had now con
;eived the plan of picture which he
loped would be his mastrrpiece-
Belshazzars Feast. This gr. at work
vas never finished, although the artist
lad it in his mind as his chief object
or more than twelve years Some
lines his pecuniary means failed,
his health; and when he
lad made considerable progress on the
picture, he changed his plan, and had
III the work to do over again. 1t
langs now in the Boston Atheneum
ind exhibits portions both of his first
md of his second design. i
The crown:ng year of Allston's ar
istic life was 1889. when there was a
rand exhibition in Boston of all his
v.Hks that could be collected. The
lumber of picures exhibited was forty.
go, and the merit of the collection
ppears to have surprised the artists
,est friends. ,a...... - -. gaE D..
The aspect Of the painter at that
inc was at once winning and verna-
lie. There was still the graceful,
lender figure. the clear blue, eye, and
he noble brow which Irving admired
Rome but the long curling hair
1as silvery nows and the countenaneel
ore the recoid of sickness and ankle
Y. He died at Cambridge in lS43,
ged sixty four. Tg1@ i-t- i
L