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Identification and Creation

Object Number
8.1955.217
People
Washington Allston, American (Georgetown, SC 1779 - 1843 Cambridge, MA)
Title
Two Sketches of a Kneeling Man, for "The Angel Releasing Saint Peter..."
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Landscape study and the head of an Arab with a turban
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1816
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/305721

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Black ink and gray wash on off-white laid paper; verso: graphite
Dimensions
23 x 30.4 cm (9 1/16 x 11 15/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: verso, graphite, in artist's hand: Let no man trust to the gentleness, the / generosity or [crossed out: apparent] seeming goodness / of his heart, [crossed out: and and rest and believe] in the hope / that they alone can bear him / safely through the temptations / of the world. This is a state of / probation [crossed out: where even the / best [ ] are [ ]] / but perilous passage [crossed off: illeg.] to the beginning of life / where even the best natures need / continually to be reminded of their / weakness [crossed out: illeg.] / & to find their only security / [crossed out: in steadily looking] in steadily / refering all their thoughts, acts of affections, / to the ultimate end of their [ ] ; / yet where imperfectious we are, / there is no [comfitation?] too strong, to the / truly humble in heart; who / distrusting themselves seek to / be sustained only by that holy / Being [crossed out: illeg.] who is life & power / and who in his love and mercy has promised to give to those / that ask.-- [ ] my reflections / Such were my reflections / [crossed out: illeg.] to which I was [giving?] / on reading this melancholy story. // If he is satisfied with them he may rest assured / that he is neither fitted for this world nor / the next; even in this there are wrongs and sorrows which no / humand [sic] remedy can reach; tears cannot restore what is lost.

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
To the artist's wife Martha Dana Allston at his death, 1843; to the Washington Allston Trust, 1862.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Loan from The Washington Allston Trust
Object Number
8.1955.217
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Kenyon Castle Bolton, III, "The Drawings of Washington Allston: A Catalogue Raisonné" (Ph.D. Diss., Harvard University, 1977), no. 110, reproduced in b/w fig. 288; verso, no. 51C, fig. 121

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu