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Identification and Creation

Object Number
8.1955.5
People
Washington Allston, American (Georgetown, SC 1779 - 1843 Cambridge, MA)
Title
Hero: Male Figure in Costume, illustration for the poem "Modern Sublimity"
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Hero 1799 ("Modern Sublimity: cooked to the most fashionable palates")
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1799
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/305468

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Brown ink on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
22.5 x 36.9 cm (8 7/8 x 14 1/2 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: recto, right side, brown ink, in artist's hand: Modern Sublimity; cooked to the most / Fashionable palates. // Oh! thou who wast ere [underlined] time began / And whose beginning ere eternity, / and whose existenc [sic] gave to [underlined:] nothing birth. / Oh touch thy harp, and with a thrill divine / Inspire a [underlined:] speck to sing an [underlined] Universe!!! / I sing [crossed out: the] a man if man he can be call'd / Whose name would beggar alphabets eternal [crossed out: waste eternal alphabets] / Far in a vale remote from mortal ken, / He liv'd in land of infinite infinitude, / A wonder of conception inconcievable! [sic] / There from the world oppress'd with age / This [underlined:] This* [footnote at bottom of page, crossed out: [three words, illeg.] As this author can find no incomprehensible / name or epithet comprehensible enough he begs leave to call him [underlined:] "This"] retired with his lone son, young / [underlined:] Chaos. Oft to beguile the lazy Time [crossed out: illegible] / Ling'ring thro weakness on his crooked scythe [crossed out: Resting in tedium] / He would relate his deeds of youthful war. / So hath the youth in friendship told me all / His parents play [crossed out: had?] was wont to give his ear. / [crossed out: But what of all did pleased [sic] me the most/best - his person / Magnificently great/magnificent sumblime [sic] and dress. / Reader thou hast it if I've pow'r to give. / Filling up the endless bounds of space his person,] / beyond the measurement of magnitude. -- (so much for his form) / [crossed out: Upon] his head a spacious [underlined:] helmet [crossed out: sat] crown'd, / Forged of the brazen beaten [underlined:] thunder.
  • inscription: verso, brown ink, in artist's hand: Whose [underlined:] crest a [underlined] whirlwind form'd, waving sublime. / And in his hand the [underlined:] forked [underlined:] lightning hove / Like to a [underlined] spear; while to his left arm cleaved / The Sun itself, as clinging for a shield. / His vest was made of the blue void, celestial. / His mantle, wove of sable chaos threads, / Formd one huge veil of [next two words underlined:] endless night. / Our [next three words underlined:] buff like horizon his [next two words underlined:] small cloaths [sic] form'd. / The orbs of Mars and Saturn were his boots, / Whose [underlined:] straps, the [next two words underlined] latter's belt being sliced did make / And hooffed thus, with booted continents* [footnote at bottom of page, crossed out: His parable the reader may ask how he could fasten two / balls to his feet. Hear ye that will! Remember there are such things as / volcanoes in this earth [ ] as other planets have well. T'was in / the gullies of two of them that he put his feet.] / He strode immensity.
  • inscription: verso, brown ink, signed, in artist's hand: Washington Allston / Hero / 1799

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
8.1955.5
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Thomas W. Leavitt, "Washington Allston at Harvard", Harvard Alumni Bulletin (Cambridge, MA, April 21, 1956), vol. 58, no. 13, p. 551
  • Kenyon Castle Bolton, III, "The Drawings of Washington Allston: A Catalogue Raisonné" (Ph.D. Diss., Harvard University, 1977), no. 216, reproduced in b/w fig. 541

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