Washington Allston

1779 (Waccamaw, S.C.) – 1843 (Cambridge, Mass.)

Allston studied under West at the Royal Academy, and addressed a sonnet to “My Venerable Friend.” He also wrote a sonnet to and painted the portrait of his lifelong friend and admirer Coleridge, whom he had originally met in Rome. Morse was one of Allston’s many pupils, and crossed the Atlantic with him to go to London. Stuart criticised the perspective in an unfinished painting by Allston, who spent another quarter-century without completing it. Dickens and Irving both made visits to Allston in Boston, Dickens taking snuff from his friend’s snuff-box during a $15, ten-course banquet in Dickens’ honour.