It was in Rome that Allston came in contact with the flourishing international society of artists and poets that included Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). After viewing Allston's painting Diana in the Chase (also entitled Swiss Scenery), a heroic landscape on exhibition in Rome , Coleridge wished to meet the artist. The painting reminded Coleridge of his own poetic writing "Lines Before Sunrise in the Valley of Chamonix " of 1802. Sensing in one another a sympathetic spirit, the two men began a lifelong friendship. Coleridge's belief in the common nature of the inspiration of poetry and the plastic arts perhaps began while visiting galleries with Allston in Rome . Conversely, Coleridge undoubtedly helped the artist gain deeper insight into romantic ideals.

     Although primarily known as a painter of historical and religious themes, Washington Allston painted portraits sporadically throughout his career. This small oil sketch is probably a preliminary study for a finished portrait of Samuel Coleridge at the age of forty-two. The final version was painted in Bristol for the subject's friend Josiah Wade and is now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London (Figure 4). In 1814, the same year of the portrait, Coleridge published a series of "Essays on the Fine Arts" in which he discussed the works that Allston had just exhibited in Bristol. Perhaps Allston's painted tribute of Coleridge was done with a measure of gratitude for his friend's promotional efforts. At the time of the portrait Allston had become reacquainted with the illustrious poet and philosopher following a nine-year separation. The renewed friendship was philosophically and spiritually crucial to both. "To no other man do I owe so much intellectually as to Mr. Coleridge," Allston proclaimed. Coleridge, in turn, described Allston in 1818 as a man of "high and rare genius...whether contemplate him in the character of a Poet, a Painter, or a philosophic Analyst."