Italian Shepherd Boy

1819

Washington Allston American, 1779-1843

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

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About the Artwork

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Markings

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Provenance

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Exhibition History

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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Credit Line for Reproduction

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About the Artwork

Title Italian Shepherd Boy

Artwork Date 1819

Artist Washington Allston

Life Dates 1779-1843

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 21 × 17 inches (53.3 × 43.2 cm) Framed: 25 3/16 × 21 1/8 × 2 7/8 inches (64 × 53.7 × 7.3 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Gift of Dexter M. Ferry, Jr.

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 44.166

Markings

Signed Signed and dated, on back of canvas: W. Allston, 1819

Provenance

by September 1825, possibly Nathaniel Amroy.
before 1839, possibly Robert Gilmore (Baltimore, Maryland, USA) [as Beattie's Minstrel].
1944, William Gibson Borland family (Concord, Massachusetts, USA);
1944, dealer, Victor Spark (New York, New York, USA);
1944-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

Letter from Allston to William Collins, May 18, 1921. The Massachusetts Historical Society, Dana Family Papers.

Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer. “Remarks on Allston’s Paintings.” Last Evening with Allston and Other Papers. Boston, 1839, p. 7.

Fuller, Margaret. “A Record of Impressions Produced by the Exhibition of Mr. Allston’s Pictures in the Summer of 1839.” Dial, 1 (July 1840): p. 79.

Sweetser, Moses Foster. Allston. Boston, 1879, p. 190.

Dunlap, William. A History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States, Volume 2. Boston, 1918, p. 461.

Richardson, Edgar P. “Three Late Pictures by Allston.” Bulletin of the DIA, 24, 1 (1944): p. 3 (ill.).

______________. American Romantic Painting. New York, 1944, p. 5.

______________. Washington Allston: A Study of the Romantic Artist in America. Chicago, 1948, pp. 139, 141, 148, and 207 (pl. 48).

Johns, Elizabeth. Washington Allston: Method, Imagination, and Reality.” Winterthur Portfolio, 12 (1977): p. 12.

____________. “Washington Allston and Samuel Taylor Coleridge: A Remarkable Relationship.” Journal of the Archives of American Art, 19, 3 (1979): p. 122.

Wolf, Bryan Jay. Romantic Re-Vision: Culture and Consciousness in Nineteenth-Century American Painting and Literature. Chicago, 1982, pp. 74-75 (ill.).

Crean, Hugh R. The Influence of William Wordsworth’s Concept of Memory on Washington Allston’s Later Works.” Arts Magazine, 57 (June 1983): p. 61.

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