Editing George Inness (section)

==Early career==
[[File:George Inness - In the Berkshires.jpg|thumbnail|''In the Berkshires'', 1850]]
[[File:George Inness, The Lackawanna Valley, c. 1856, NGA 30776.jpg|thumb|''The Lackawanna Valley'', c. 1856, National Gallery of Art]]

In 1851 a patron named Ogden Haggerty sponsored Inness's first trip to Europe to paint and study. Inness spent fifteen months in [[Rome]], where he studied landscapes by French artists [[Claude Lorrain]] and [[Nicolas Poussin]].<ref name="Columbus Museum of Art p.6" /> He rented a studio there above that of painter [[William Page (painter)|William Page]], who likely introduced the artist to [[Swedenborgianism]]. He returned to America with his wife on the ''[[SS Great Britain]]'' in May 1852.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://globalstories.ssgreatbritain.org/_/traveller/576/|title=SS Great Britain : Brunel's SS Great Britain|website=globalstories.ssgreatbritain.org}}</ref> In 1853 he was elected to the [[National Academy of Design]] as an Associate member and became a full Academician in 1868.

During trips to Paris in the early 1850s, Inness came under the influence of artists working in the [[Barbizon school]] of France. [[Barbizon]] [[landscape art|landscape]]s 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 1854 during one of these trips, his son [[George Inness, Jr.]], who also became a landscape painter of note, was born in Paris.

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 c. 1855, represents the railroad's first roundhouse at [[Scranton]], [[Pennsylvania]].<ref>Cikovsky, Nicolai: ''George Inness'', p. 74. Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 1985. In Cikovsky's estimation, "This painting is undoubtably not only the finest of Inness' early paintings; it is also one of the finest he ever painted."</ref> It 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. But the artist was increasingly concerned with formal considerations.<ref>Cikovsky, p. 154, 1985.</ref>