Portrait of George Inness

George Inness Painting Reproductions 5 of 8

1825-1894

American Romanticism Painter

George Inness (May 1, 1825 - August 3, 1894), was an American landscape painter; born in Newburgh, New York; died at Bridge of Allan in Scotland. His work was influenced, in turn, by the that of the old masters, the Hudson River school, the Barbizon school, and, finally, by the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg, whose spiritualism found vivid expression in the work of Inness' maturity.

Youth
Inness was the fifth of thirteen children born to John Williams Inness, a farmer, and his wife, Clarissa Baldwin. His family moved to Newark, New Jersey when he was about five years of age. In 1839 he studied for several months with an itinerant painter, John Jesse Barker. In his teens, Inness worked as a map engraver in New York City. During this time he attracted the attention of French landscape painter Regis-Francois Gignoux, with whom he subsequently studied. Throughout the mid-1840s he also attended classes at the National Academy of Design, and studied the work of Hudson River School artists Thomas Cole and Asher Durand; "If", Inness later recalled thinking, "these two can be combined, I will try."
Concurrent with these studies Inness opened his first studio in New York. In 1849 Inness married Delia Miller, who died a few months later. The next year he married Elizabeth Abigail Hart, with whom he would have six children.

Early career
In 1851 a patron named Ogden Haggerty sponsored Inness' first trip to Europe to paint and study. Inness spent more than a year in Rome, during which time he rented a studio above that of painter William Page, who likely introduced the artist to Swedenborgianism.
During trips to Paris in the early 1850s, Inness came under the influence of artists working in the Barbizon school of France. Barbizon landscapes were noted for their looser brushwork, darker palette, and emphasis on mood. Inness quickly became the leading American exponent of Barbizon-style painting, which he developed into a highly personal style.
In the mid-1850s, Inness was commissioned by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad to create paintings which documented the progress of DLWRR's growth in early Industrial America. The Lackawanna Valley, painted ca. 1855, represents the railroad's first roundhouse at Scranton, Pennsylvania and integrates technology and wilderness within an observed landscape; in time, not only would Inness shun the industrial presence in favor of bucolic or agrarian subjects, but he would produce much of his mature work in the studio, drawing on his visual memory to produce scenes that were often inspired by specific places, yet increasingly concerned with formal considerations.

Maturity
The work of the 1860s and 1870s often tended toward the panoramic and picturesque, topped by cloud-laden and threatening skies, and included views of his native country (Autumn Oaks, 1878, Metropolitan Museum of Art ; Catskill Mountains, 1870, Art Institute of Chicago), as well as scenes inspired by numerous travels overseas, especially to Italy and France (The Monk, 1873, Addison Gallery of American Art; Etretat, 1875, Wadsworth Atheneum). In terms of composition, precision of drawing, and the emotive use of color, these paintings placed Inness among the best and most successful landscape painters in America.

Eventually Inness' art evidenced the influence of the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg. Of particular interest to Inness was the notion that everything in nature had a correspondential relationship with something spiritual and so received an "influx" from God in order to continually exist.

Another influence upon Inness' thinking was William James, also an adherent to Swedenborgianism. In particular, Inness was inspired by James' idea of consciousness as a "stream of thought", as well as his ideas concerning how mystical experience shapes one's perspective toward nature.

After Inness settled in Montclair, New Jersey in 1878, and particularly in the last decade of his life, this mystical component manifested in his art through a more abstracted handling of shapes, softened edges, and saturated color (October, 1886, Los Angeles County Museum of Art), a profound and dramatic juxtaposition of sky and earth (Early Autumn, Montclair, 1888, Montclair Art Museum), an emphasis on the intimate landscape view (Sunset in the Woods, 1891, Corcoran Gallery of Art), and an increasingly personal, spontaneous, and often violent handling of paint. It is this last quality in particular which distinguishes Inness from those painters of like sympathies who are characterized as Luminists.
In a published interview, Inness maintained that "The true use of art is, first, to cultivate the artist's own spiritual nature." His abiding interest in spiritual and emotional considerations did not preclude Inness from undertaking a scientific study of color, nor a mathematical, structural approach to composition: "The poetic quality is not obtained by eschewing any truths of fact or of Nature...Poetry is the vision of reality."

Inness died while in Scotland in 1894. According to his son, he was viewing the sunset, when he threw up his hands into the air and exclaimed, "My God! oh, how beautiful!", fell to the ground, and died minutes later.

188 George Inness Paintings

Landscape, 1888 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

Landscape 1888

Oil Painting
$525
Canvas Print
$62.55
SKU: ING-9179
George Inness
Original Size: 56.2 x 70 cm
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, USA

Sunny Autumn Day, 1892 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

Sunny Autumn Day 1892

Oil Painting
$677
Canvas Print
$57.56
SKU: ING-9180
George Inness
Original Size: 81 x 106 cm
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, USA

Durham, Connecticut, 1858 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

Durham, Connecticut 1858

Oil Painting
$483
Canvas Print
$50.22
SKU: ING-9181
George Inness
Original Size: 39.3 x 67.3 cm
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, USA

Sunset over the Sea, 1887 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

Sunset over the Sea 1887

Oil Painting
$530
Canvas Print
$77.00
SKU: ING-9182
George Inness
Original Size: 56 x 91.8 cm
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, USA

On the Delaware River, c.1861/63 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

On the Delaware River c.1861/63

Oil Painting
$722
Canvas Print
$73.78
SKU: ING-9183
George Inness
Original Size: 71.8 x 122 cm
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, USA

Homeward, 1881 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

Homeward 1881

Oil Painting
$611
Canvas Print
$84.31
SKU: ING-9184
George Inness
Original Size: 51.5 x 76.5 cm
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, USA

June, 1882 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

June 1882

Oil Painting
$623
Canvas Print
$50.38
SKU: ING-9185
George Inness
Original Size: 76.5 x 114.9 cm
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, USA

Summer Foliage, 1883 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

Summer Foliage 1883

Oil Painting
$633
Canvas Print
$50.38
SKU: ING-9186
George Inness
Original Size: 76.2 x 113 cm
Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, USA

View of Rome from Tivoli, 1872 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

View of Rome from Tivoli 1872

Oil Painting
$645
Canvas Print
$50.23
SKU: ING-9187
George Inness
Original Size: 76.2 x 114.3 cm
Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, USA

Durham, Connecticut, 1869 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

Durham, Connecticut 1869

Oil Painting
$376
Canvas Print
$50.22
SKU: ING-9188
George Inness
Original Size: 22.7 x 30.4 cm
Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA

A View near Medfield, 1861 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

A View near Medfield 1861

Oil Painting
$622
Canvas Print
$91.82
SKU: ING-9189
George Inness
Original Size: 66.7 x 91.5 cm
Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA

The Mill Stream, Montclair, New Jersey, c.1888 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

The Mill Stream, Montclair, New Jersey c.1888

Oil Painting
$594
Canvas Print
$50.38
SKU: ING-9190
George Inness
Original Size: 77.4 x 114.3 cm
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota, USA

Apple Blossom Time, 1883 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

Apple Blossom Time 1883

Oil Painting
$455
SKU: ING-9191
George Inness
Original Size: 68.9 x 56.2 cm
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, USA

Italy, c.1872/74 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

Italy c.1872/74

Oil Painting
$488
SKU: ING-9192
George Inness
Original Size: 36.8 x 54.6 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA

Landscape near Medfield, Massachusetts, 1868 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

Landscape near Medfield, Massachusetts 1868

Oil Painting
$518
Canvas Print
$50.22
SKU: ING-9193
George Inness
Original Size: 31.1 x 43.8 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA

Landscape with a Stream, 1885 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

Landscape with a Stream 1885

Oil Painting
$550
SKU: ING-9194
George Inness
Original Size: 30.6 x 46.2 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA

Landscape with Yellow Bushes, 1865 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

Landscape with Yellow Bushes 1865

Oil Painting
$496
SKU: ING-9195
George Inness
Original Size: 30.6 x 46 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA

Short Cut, Watchung Station, New Jersey, 1883 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

Short Cut, Watchung Station, New Jersey 1883

Oil Painting
$570
Canvas Print
$96.82
SKU: ING-9196
George Inness
Original Size: 95.6 x 74 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA

Summer Landscape, 1876 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

Summer Landscape 1876

Oil Painting
$579
SKU: ING-9197
George Inness
Original Size: 76.8 x 114.9 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA

Twilight on the Campagna, c.1851 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

Twilight on the Campagna c.1851

Oil Painting
$659
SKU: ING-9198
George Inness
Original Size: 96.2 x 136.2 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA

Perugia, c.1873 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

Perugia c.1873

Oil Painting
$453
SKU: ING-9199
George Inness
Original Size: unknown
Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona, USA

Elf Ground, c.1860 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

Elf Ground c.1860

Oil Painting
$478
Canvas Print
$50.22
SKU: ING-9200
George Inness
Original Size: 25.5 x 35.5 cm
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, USA

Georgia Pines, 1890 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

Georgia Pines 1890

Oil Painting
$406
Canvas Print
$55.08
SKU: ING-9201
George Inness
Original Size: 45.3 x 61 cm
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, USA

Niagara, 1889 by George Inness | Painting Reproduction

Niagara 1889

Oil Painting
$564
Canvas Print
$50.51
SKU: ING-9202
George Inness
Original Size: 76 x 114.3 cm
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, USA

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