Self-Portrait, 1805
Washington Allston (November 5, 1779 – July 9, 1843) was an American painter and poet, born in Waccamaw Parish, South Carolina. Allston pioneered America’s Romantic movement of landscape painting. He was well known during his lifetime for his experiments with dramatic subject matter and his bold use of light and atmospheric color. Source: Wikipedia
(On view at the Museum of FIne Arts, Boston)
He is the namesake for the neighborhood of Allston. He is a graduate of Harvard College and maintained an art studio in Cambridgeport. His painting, Elijah in the Desert (1818) was the first painting to become part of the permanent collection in the new Museum of Fine Arts in Boston when it opened in 1876. Today, the museum owns a number of his paintings, which are on exhibit in the new American wing.