1826. ] Painters— Painting. 31 
common observer. He is regarded with you, and, of course, here in 
America, as one of the best painters alive. You know what a noise 
they made with you, when his Jacob's Vision appeared; not a few of 
your chief men spoke as if a new era of the art was nigh. Still the noise 
that you made there was nothing to the noise that people made here 
about poor Jacob. I have seen the picture—I have studied it well—and 
I say that, instead of being what I have heard it called by a very clever 
man with you, one of the best, or the best picture of modern days—the 
very best, he said, I do believe—it is feeble and stiff, though very 
correct and beautiful. Jacob is nobody, in the fore-ground (which, by 
the way, zs capital); and the chief angel, with his wings outspread afar 
off, is, even what the steps are, a failure. But the two angels that keep 
together do seem to be very much after the quiet, graceful, secure 
manner of Raphael, and the light on the leg of one, isbeauty. Mr. A. 
is now employed on a large work, Belshazzar’s Feast, or the Hand- 
writing on the Wall, a picture for which he is to have ten or twelve 
thousand dollars, I hear. Stay—I will give you the opinion of a brother 
artist, a capital painter and a capital judge, whose letter is now before 
me. “ A gentleman of Boston (he says) told me yesterday that Allston’s 
long-expected picture would be before the public this summer, and that 
he (A.) contemplated a permanent residence at New Haven” (a village of 
Connecticut, where it goes for a city). ‘Allston is certainly a character, but 
he should be studied personally to do him justice ; his humanity must be 
a tax upon his happiness, and yet he has a multitude of little antipathies. 
I have heard Sully say (T. Sully, of whom you are to have a sketch 
before I get through) that Allston, who was looking at a fine picture 
with him one day, on seeing a spider, went away from the place, and 
would not suffer a friend to kill the spider—he chose rather to give way 
to it, although his antipathy would not allow him to abide where it was. 
I should remark here that Sully is one of his greatest admirers. Allston 
wants regularity and decision of character, a want which will destroy 
him. You are to know that Allston loves his country with enthusiasm, 
and that if a single effort were enough, he weuld immolate himself to 
benefit her. If he were in Europe his magnificent powers would make 
him the boast of America; but they require to be drawn out by opposi- 
tion, to be provoked and stimulated by rivalry and by encouragement. 
Here, though the love that he has for the art and for his country is 
very strong, they make but occasional appeals to his imagination ; 
whereas the love of quiet and solitude solicits him continually. The 
latter has already seduced him from an honourable rank in London, to 
remove to the tranquillity of Boston (or Cambridge, rather, which is 
near Boston), and is now about to bury him in the seclusion of a country 
village. I do most sincerely mourn over so great a loss; for, so far as 
my judgment is informed, I do consider Allston as one of the greatest 
living painters. I know of no other artist who combines so many great 
qualities. It is difficult to say where we should bestow the greatest 
praise after considering a picture of his—you are in doubt which is the 
most excellent, the drawing, the character, the effect, the tone, or the 
colour. 
“ There was a time when he betrayed some littleness in the manage- 
ment of his work—it was the remains of the bad manner acquired in 
‘the modern Roman school; but that has now given place to a bold, de- 
cided handling. I say this without hesitation, though it may appear 
