Italian Shepherd Boy

1819

Washington Allston American, 1779-1843

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

Image Only Image + Details All Images High Resolution TIFF Metadata

About the Artwork

Please note: This section is empty
Markings

Please note: This section is empty

This section contains information about signatures, inscriptions and/or markings an object may have.
Provenance

Please note: This section is empty

Provenance is a record of an object's ownership. We are continually researching and updating this information to show a more accurate record and to ensure that this object was ethically and legally obtained.

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:
Provenance page
Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

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.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
Suggest Feedback
Published References

Please note: This section is empty

We regularly update our object record as new research and findings emerge, and we welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
Suggest Feedback
Catalogue Raisonné

Please note: This section is empty

A catalogue raisonné is an annotated listing of artworks created by an artist across different media.
Credit Line for Reproduction

Please note: This section is empty

The credit line includes information about the object, such as the artist, title, date, and medium. Also listed is its ownership, the manner in which it was acquired, and its accession number. This information must be cited alongside the object whenever it is shown or reproduced.
Audio Transcript

Please note: This section is empty

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:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

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.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

Suggest Feedback

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.

Kindly share your feedback or any additional information, as this record is still a work in progress and may need further refinement.

Suggest Feedback