The Flight of Florimell
1819
oil
canvas
From the collection of Detroit Institute of Arts
About the artist
Artist
Washington Allston
American, Georgetown, South Carolina 1779–1843 Cambridgeport, Massachusetts
See the richer artist page1819
oil
canvas
From the collection of Detroit Institute of Arts
The Flight of Florimell is a 1819 oil by Washington Allston, held at Detroit Institute of Arts.
This painting depicts a woman in a flowing gold dress riding a white horse through a forest. The horse is in mid-gallop, its front legs extended and its back legs bent. In the background, a man in armor rides a brown horse, looking at the woman. The forest is dense, with tall trees and a stream running through it. The woman's dress is blowing in the wind, and her long hair is flowing behind her. The horse's mane and tail are also flowing, adding to the sense of movement in the painting. The background is dark, with the sun shining through the trees, casting dappled shadows on the forest floor. The painting is a beautiful example of Washington Allston's use of chiaroscuro, a technique that uses strong contrasts between light and dark to create a sense of depth and volume.
The Flight of Florimell is an 1819 oil painting by the American artist Washington Allston. It depicts a scene from The Faerie Queene by the Elizabethan Era English poet Edmund Spenser. Romantic in style, it is distinctly Gothic in tone with a frightened heroine being pursued on horseback. Today the painting is in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts in Michigan, having been acquired in 1944.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Source: wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
American, Georgetown, South Carolina 1779–1843 Cambridgeport, Massachusetts
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