Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009149Samuel Williams
About the Artwork
Allston’s portrait of his London banker and business agent explores the experience of reverie. Williams looks off absently, perhaps inspired by the pictures in the book he holds. With its view of an Italianate landscape beyond the columns of this invented setting, the painting seemingly invites viewers to join the sitter in dreaming about faraway places.
Provenance
Timothy Williams, Boston; Mrs. W. Pratt; Theodore Lyman, Brookline, Mass.; Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence A. Fleischman, Detroit; Kennedy Galleries, New York
Exhibition history
Golden Anniversary of Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10-October 16, 1966). A Cloudy Symbol: Washington Allston in Retrospect. Lowe Art Museum, Miami, FL (organizer) (March 6-April 13, 1975). "A Man of Genius": The Art of Washington Allston. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA (organizer) (December 11, 1979-February 3, 1980); Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA (February 28-April 27, 1980).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Washington Allston (American, 1779–1843)
- Date
- c. 1817
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 172.5 x 142.5 x 14 cm (67 15/16 x 56 1/8 x 5 1/2 in.); Unframed: 142.2 x 111.8 cm (56 x 44 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- American Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Accession no.
- 1965.474
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Open-access museum record · AT-00009149
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