Director's Choice: "Hermia and Helena"


	European Influences The literary subject of this painting Hermia and Helena by Washington Allston is taken from Shakespeare; the celebration of intimate friendship derives from the German poet Goethe; the glazing techniques were inspired by Titian. Clearly Washington Allston was among America's most educated early painters; he was conversant with Europe's great traditions of literature, philosophy, and art. Hermia and Helena were two childhood friends from Shakespeare's comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Their friendship was so close that they shared all the same tastes and predilections; they even loved the same man. In Act III of the play, Helena describes their similarities and says, So we grew together, Like to a double cherry: seeming parted, But yet a union in partition, Two lovely berries moulded on one stem. When Allston wrote of this subject to a friend in 1831, he said it represented the "singleness and unity of friendship." Pictured: Washington Allston, Hermia and Helena, before 1818; oil, 30 3/8 x 25 1/4 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program and made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson, Catherine W. Myer, the National Institute Gift.	Part 1 Discussion: Hermia and Helena (410K) Get QuickTime

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