The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 88, February, 1865

The February 1865 issue opens with a tribute to Washington Allston, America’s first great painter, whose death twenty‑one years earlier still lingers in the art world. The author recalls Allston’s debut at the Boston Athenæum in 1827, highlighting works like “Jeremiah dictating his Prophecy to Baruch the Scribe” and “The Flight of Florimel” as possessing a rare imagination. By comparing his technique to the Venetian school, the essay suggests his use of color and light creates a musical quality that stays with the viewer.

The piece then surveys Allston’s landscapes, arranging them like movements in a symphony—from a muted moonlit scene to the radiant “Italian Landscape” bathed in bright daylight. It explains how his mastery of high‑key illumination and subtle tonal shifts lets shadows both conceal and reveal forms, giving each view an ode‑like reverence for nature. Listeners will come away with a richer sense of a painter whose nineteenth‑century vision still sings with timeless harmony.