The Art of Enchantment
Shakespeare's enchanted wood is the second focus of Allston's painting. The dense foliage and glowing distant light suggest that Allston knew the work of German romantic painters who had translated the nature poetry of Goethe and Rilke into lush, evocative images.
For all these borrowings of literary and philosophical concepts, however, Allston remained persuaded that the painter's art was one of magic formulas. He experimented to find the secret of Titian's subtle glazes, seeking the kind of translucent depth in his pigments that the old Venetian masters had achieved. The foreground areas of Hermia and Helena especially show these deep rich colors. Unfortunately, after returning to America in 1818, his experiments often led to later deterioration of the paint film. Many of Allson's paintings have darkened dramatically.
Pictured: Washington Allston, Hermia and Helena (detail), 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.
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Hermia and Helena
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