Samuel Williams, c.1817 (oil on canvas)

Whether Allston was at home in Boston or on one of his two extended trips to Europe, the art world of his day regarded him as America's foremost proponent of Romantic painting. Along with his visionary landscapes and scenes from literature, his portraits also make statements about the workings of the imagination. Although Samuel Williams (d.1841) was a merchant and a banker, this canvas suggests nothing about his professional life. Instead, the painter made this portrait commission an opportunity to explore the experience of revery. Williams looks off absently into his chamber, apparently inspired by the pictures in his illustrated book. With its view of an Italianate landscape beyond the columns of this invented setting, the painting invites its viewers to join the sitter in dreaming about far-away places.