Editing George Inness

{{short description|19th-century American landscape painter}}
{{other people}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2018}}
{{Infobox artist
| name          = George Inness
| image         = George Inness.jpg
| imagesize     = 
| caption       = George Inness, 1890
| birth_name    = 
| birth_date    = {{birth date |1825|5|1}}
| birth_place   = [[Newburgh (town), New York|Newburgh, New York]], U.S.
| death_date    = {{death date and age |1894|8|3|1825|5|1}}
| death_place   = [[Bridge of Allan]], Scotland
| field         = [[Landscape art]], [[Painting]]
| training      = [[Barbizon school]] of France
| movement      = [[Hudson River School]]
| works         = 
| patrons       = 
| influenced by =
| influenced    =
| awards        = 
}}
'''George Inness''' (May 1, 1825&nbsp;– August 3, 1894) was an American [[landscape painting|landscape painter]].

Now recognized as one of the most influential American artists of the nineteenth century, Inness was influenced by the [[Hudson River School]] at the start of his career. He also studied the [[Old Masters]], and artists of the [[Barbizon school]] during later trips to Europe. There he was introduced to the theology of [[Emanuel Swedenborg]], which was significant for him; he expressed that spiritualism in the works of his maturity (1879–1894).

Although Inness's style evolved through distinct stages over a prolific career that spanned more than forty years and 1,000 paintings, his works consistently earned acclaim for their powerful, coordinated efforts to elicit depth of mood, atmosphere, and emotion. Neither pure [[realism (arts)|realist]] nor [[impressionist]], Inness was a transitional figure. He worked to combine both the earthly and the ethereal in order to capture the complete essence of a locale in his works. A master of light, color, and shadow, he became noted for creating highly ordered and complex scenes that often juxtaposed hazy or blurred elements with sharp and refined details to evoke an interweaving of both the physical and the spiritual nature of experience. In Inness's words, he attempted through his art to demonstrate the "reality of the unseen"<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bell|first1=Adrienne Baxter|title=George Inness: Writings and Reflections on Art and Philosophy|date=2006|publisher=George Braziller|location=New York|page=79}}</ref> and to connect the "visible upon the invisible."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://linesandcolors.com/2006/12/20/george-inness/|title=George Inness – Lines and Colors|date=December 20, 2006 }}</ref>

Within his lifetime, art critics hailed Inness as one of America's greatest artists.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bell|first1=Adrienne Baxter|title=George Inness: Writings and Reflections on Art and Philosophy|date=2006|publisher=George Braziller|location=New York|pages=7–10}}</ref> Often called "the father of American landscape painting,"<ref>{{cite web|title=George Inness: Private Treasures |url=http://montclairartmuseum.org/innesstreasures/ |publisher=Montclair Art Museum |access-date=July 9, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120416064223/http://www.montclairartmuseum.org/innesstreasures/ |archive-date=April 16, 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=MAM and Adult School of Montclair&nbsp;– George Inness After Hours Tour |url=http://www.thejerseytomatopress.com/stories/MAM-and-Adult-School-of-Montclair-George-Inness-After-Hours-Tour,9312?content_source=&category_id=&search_filter=&event_mode=day&event_ts_from=&list_type=&order_by=&order_sort=&content_class=&sub_type=event_browse&town_id=&page= |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130203232959/http://www.thejerseytomatopress.com/stories/MAM-and-Adult-School-of-Montclair-George-Inness-After-Hours-Tour,9312?content_source=&category_id=&search_filter=&event_mode=day&event_ts_from=&list_type=&order_by=&order_sort=&content_class=&sub_type=event_browse&town_id=&page= |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 3, 2013 |publisher=The Jersey Tomato Press |access-date=July 9, 2012 }}</ref> Inness is best known for his mature works that not only exemplified the [[Tonalism|Tonalist]] movement but also displayed an original and uniquely American style.

==Youth==
George Inness was born in [[Newburgh (town), New York|Newburgh, New York]].<ref name="Columbus Museum of Art p.6">{{citation |editor-last=Roberts |editor-first=Norma J. |title=The American Collections |publisher=[[Columbus Museum of Art]] |year=1988 |isbn=0-8109-1811-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/americancollecti0000colu/page/6 6] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/americancollecti0000colu/page/6 }}</ref> He was the fifth of thirteen children born to John William Inness, a farmer, and his wife, Clarissa Baldwin.

His family moved to [[Newark, New Jersey]] when he was about five years of age.<ref>{{citation |last=Bell |first=Adrienne Baxter |title=George Inness and the Visionary Landscape |page=[https://archive.org/details/georgeinnessvisi0000unse/page/151 151] |publisher=George Braziller, Inc. |year=2003 |isbn=0-8076-1525-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/georgeinnessvisi0000unse/page/151 }}</ref> In 1839 he studied for several months with an itinerant painter, John Jesse Barker.<ref name="Columbus Museum of Art p.6" />

In his teens, Inness worked as a map engraver in New York City, first for Sherman & Smith, and then N. Currier.<ref>{{cite web|title=George Inness|url=https://www.theartstory.org/artist/inness-george/|access-date=14 August 2022}}</ref> During this time he attracted the attention of French landscape painter [[Régis François Gignoux]], with whom he subsequently studied.<ref name="Columbus Museum of Art p.6" /> 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."<ref>{{harvnb|Bell|2003|p=151}}.</ref> He debuted his work at the National Academy in 1844.<ref name="Columbus Museum of Art p.6" />

Inness opened his first studio in New York in 1848.<ref name="Columbus Museum of Art p.6" /> In 1849, he married Delia Miller, who died a few months later. The next year he married Elizabeth Abigail Hart, with whom he would have six children.<ref>{{harvnb|Bell|2003|p=152}}.</ref>

==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>

==Mid-career==
[[File:George Inness - Lake Albano - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|''Lake Albano'', 1869, [[Phillips Collection]]]]
[[File:George Inness by Napoleon Sarony.jpg|left|thumb|George Inness, after 1875, albumen print (cabinet card) by [[Napoleon Sarony]], Department of Image Collections, National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC]]
Inness moved from New York City to [[Medfield, Massachusetts]] in 1860, where he [[Inness-Fitts House and Studio/Barn|converted a barn into a studio]]. In 1862–63, he was an art teacher to [[Charles Dormon Robinson]], who became known for works of California.<ref name="Harper1913">{{cite book|last=Harper|first=Franklin|title=Who's who on the Pacific Coast: a biographical compilation of notable living contemporaries west of the Rocky Mountains|url=https://archive.org/details/whoswhoonpacifi00harpgoog|access-date=January 29, 2012|edition=Public domain|year=1913|publisher=Harper Pub. Co.|pages=[https://archive.org/details/whoswhoonpacifi00harpgoog/page/n488 483]–}}</ref>

Inness moved to [[Perth Amboy, New Jersey]] in 1864.<ref name="Columbus Museum of Art p.6" /> (See [[George Inness House]].) He returned to Europe in the spring of 1870, living in Rome and touring [[Tivoli, Lazio|Tivoli]], [[Lake Albano]], and [[Venice]].<ref name="Columbus Museum of Art p.6" /> In 1878, he returned to New York City, taking a studio in the New York University Building.<ref name="Columbus Museum of Art p.6" /> The same year, he also participated in the [[Universal Exposition]] in Paris. In addition to painting, he published art criticism in the ''[[New York Evening Post]]'' and ''[[Harper's New Monthly Magazine]]''.<ref name="Columbus Museum of Art p.6" />

His work of the 1860s and 1870s often tended toward the panoramic and picturesque, topped by cloud-laden and threatening skies. It included views of his native country (''[[Autumn Oaks]]'', 1878, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]];<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOnezoom.asp?dep=2&zoomFlag=0&viewmode=0&item=87%2E8%2E8 |title= The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Works of Art: American Paintings and Sculpture|website=www.metmuseum.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080316000559/http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOnezoom.asp?dep=2&zoomFlag=0&viewmode=0&item=87.8.8 |archive-date=March 16, 2008}}</ref> ''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]];<ref>http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/display_image.php?id=49748 {{Bare URL image|date=March 2022}}</ref> ''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.<ref>In 1899, several years after Inness' death, a small landscape, ''Gray, Lowery Day'', 1877, sold for more than $10,000. Cikovsky, p. 142, 1985.</ref>

In 1877 Inness built a home and studio at [[Tarpon Springs, Florida]]. He ignored the characteristic palm and painted what some considered the drab pine woods. His painting ''Early Morning – Tarpon Springs'' depicts this environment.<ref>{{citation
|title=Florida. A Guide to the Southernmost State
|date=1939
|place=New York
|author=Federal Writers' Project
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|page=158}}</ref>

Eventually Inness's art expressed the influence of the theology of [[Emanuel Swedenborg]]. Of particular interest to Inness was the notion that everything in nature had a corresponding relationship with something spiritual and so received an "influx" from God in order to continually exist. Another influence upon Inness's thinking was [[William James]], also an adherent of Swedenborgianism. In particular, Inness was inspired by James's idea of consciousness as a "stream of thought", as well as his ideas concerning how mystical experience shapes one's perspective toward nature.<ref>Taylor, E. I. "The Interior Landscape: William James and George Inness on Art from a Swedenborgian Point of View," ''Archives of American Art Journal'' (Smithsonian Institution), 1997. 1-2, 2–10.</ref>

Inness was the subject of a major retrospective in 1884, organized by the [[American Art Association]], which brought him acclaim in the United States.<ref name="Columbus Museum of Art p.6" /> He earned international fame when he received a gold medal at the [[Exposition Universelle (1889)|1889 Paris Exposition]].<ref name="Columbus Museum of Art p.6" />

==Late career==
[[File:The Storm George Inness 1885.jpeg|thumb|right|''The Storm'', oil on canvas, 1885, [[Reynolda House Museum of American Art]]]]
[[File:George Inness Signature.jpg|thumb|George Inness signature from 1885]]
After Inness settled in [[Montclair, New Jersey]] in 1885,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Montclair Art Museum Gallery Will Be Dedicated to Works by George Inness; with essay by Diane P. Fisher |url=https://www.tfaoi.org/aa/2aa/2aa574.htm |access-date=2024-12-01 |website=www.tfaoi.org |quote=George Inness settled in Montclair, New Jersey in 1885, living and working there until his death in 1894.}}</ref> and particularly in the last decade of his life, he expressed this mystical component by 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]]),<ref>http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/display_image.php?id=16685 {{Bare URL image|date=March 2022}}</ref> 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.<ref>"The energy of his attack upon a canvas (in this case it was literally an attack), the rapidity and accuracy of his drawing and brushwork and the amount of space he would cover in a few moments, was simply marvelous to watch". Account of Arthur Turnbull Hill, {{harvnb|Bell|2003|p=46}}.</ref><ref>As early as 1871, in ''Old Aqueduct, Camapagna, Rome'', his powers of suggestion are already evident, as described in this unique passage: "In this landscape painting, he used the virtuosic brushstroke not so much to represent sheep as to present to his viewers the ontological ''essence'' of sheep." {{harvnb|Bell|2003|p=138}}.</ref> It is this last quality in particular which distinguishes Inness from those painters of like sympathies who are characterized as [[Luminism (American art style)|Luminist]]s.<ref>Bell, p. 37, 2004.</ref>

In a published interview, Inness maintained that "The true use of art is, first, to cultivate the artist's own spiritual nature."<ref>"A Painter on Painting", ''Harper's New Monthly Magazine 56'', p. 461. February 1878.</ref> His abiding interest in spiritual and emotional considerations did not preclude Inness from undertaking a scientific study of color,<ref>"You can only achieve something if you have an ambition so powerful as to forget yourself, or if you are up on the science of your art. If a man can be an eternal God when he is outside, then he is all right; if not, he must fall back on science." Cikovsky, p. 136, 1985.</ref> nor a mathematical,<ref>Bell, page 28, 2004.</ref> 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."<ref>Cikovsky, p. 182, 1985.</ref>

Inness died in 1894 at [[Bridge of Allan]] in Scotland.<ref name="Columbus Museum of Art p.6" /> 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.<ref>Bell, p. 64, 2004.</ref> A public funeral for Inness was held at the National Academy of Design. A memorial exhibition was conducted at the Fine Arts Building in New York City.<ref name="Columbus Museum of Art p.6" />

He is buried in Montclair, New Jersey's [[Rosedale Cemetery (Orange, New Jersey)|Rosedale Cemetery]], as is his namesake son.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rosedale Cemetery Walking Guide of Notable Interments |url=https://rosedalecemetery.org/wp-content/uploads/RosedaleCemetery_BF-Walking-Guide_Q07999_D2.pdf |access-date=2022-11-08 |website=rosedalecemetery.org}}</ref> The [[Montclair Art Museum]] is the only museum in the world that has a gallery dedicated to Inness and as of 2023 has a renowned collection of 24 works by Inness.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Esplund |first=Lance |date=January 25, 2023 |title='George Inness: Visionary Landscapes' Review: Enchanted by the Light |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/george-inness-visionary-landscapes-review-enchanted-by-the-light-11674685589 |website=The Wall Street Journal}}</ref> 
{{Clear}}

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:George Inness - Milton, New York (c.1856).jpg|''Milton, New York'', charcoal, white wash, and gouache over graphite on grey paper, c. 1856, [[Yale University Art Gallery]]
File:Lake Nemi by George Inness.jpeg|''Lake Nemi'', oil on canvas, 1857, [[Yale University Art Gallery]]
File:In the Adirondacks by George Inness.jpeg|''In the Adirondacks'', oil on canvas, {{circa|1862}}, [[Yale University Art Gallery]]
File:WLA brooklynmuseum George Inness -On the Delaware River.jpg|''On the Delaware River'', 1860s, [[Brooklyn Museum]]
File:Inness The Valley of the Olives.jpg|''The Valley of the Olives'', oil on canvas, 1867, [[The Walters Art Museum]]
File:George Inness - In the Roman Campagna.jpg|''In the Roman Campagna'', oil on canvas, 1873, [[Saint Louis Art Museum]]
File:Etretat George Inness 1875.jpeg|''Étretat'', oil on canvas, 1875, [[Wadsworth Atheneum]]
File:Evening at Medfield, Massachusetts MET DT11918.jpg|''[[Evening at Medfield, Massachusetts]]'', 1875, Metropolitan Museum of Art
File:Inness, George - The Rainbow - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[The Rainbow (painting)|The Rainbow]]'', oil on canvas c. 1878, [[Indianapolis Museum of Art]]
File:Two Sisters in the Garden by George Inness 1882.jpg|''Two Sisters in the Garden'', oil on millboard, 1882, [[Art Institute of Chicago]]
File:Brooklyn Museum - June - George Inness - overall.jpg|''June'', 1882, [[Brooklyn Museum]]
File:Frosty Morning, Montclair by George Inness.jpg|''Frosty Morning, Montclair'', oil on canvas, 1885
File:Moonrise by George Inness 1887.jpeg|''Moonrise'', oil on canvas, 1887, [[Yale University Art Gallery]]
File:Brooklyn Museum - Sunrise - George Inness - overall - 2.jpg|''Sunrise'', 1887, [[Brooklyn Museum]]
File:Brooklyn Museum - Sunset over the Sea - George Inness - overall.jpg|''Sunset over the Sea'', 1887, [[Brooklyn Museum]]
File:George Inness - The Mill Stream, Montclair, New Jersey - 2000.236 - Minneapolis Institute of Arts.jpg|''The Mill Stream, Montclair, New Jersey'', c. 1888, [[Minneapolis Institute of Art]]
File:Inness - Sunset on the Passaic, oil on canvas, 1891.jpg|''Sunset on the Passaic'', oil on canvas, 1891, [[Honolulu Museum of Art]]
File:Edge of the Forest by George Inness 1891.jpeg|''Edge of the Forest'', oil on canvas, 1891, [[Yale University Art Gallery]]
File:Spring Blossoms, Montclair, New Jersey MET DT98.jpg|''Spring Blossoms, Montclair, New Jersey'', oil and crayon or charcoal on canvas, c.1891
File:Inness George Early Morning Tarpon Springs.jpg|''Early Morning, Tarpon Springs'' oil painting, 1892
File:George Inness - Home at Montclair (1892).jpg|''Home at Montclair'', 1892, oil on canvas, [[Clark Art Institute]]
File:Pool in the Woods (George Inness).jpg|''Pool in the Woods'', 1892, oil painting
File:George Inness - The Home of the Heron - Google Art Project.jpg|'' The Home of the Heron'', 1893, [[Art Institute of Chicago]]
File:George Inness 002.jpg|''Summer Landscape'', 1894
</gallery>

==Works==
* ''[[A Bit of the Roman Aqueduct]]'' (1852)
* ''[[Spring Blossoms, Montclair, New Jersey]]'' (c. 1891)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline}}
* [http://www.georgeinness.org/ George Inness. The Complete Works]
* Artwork by George Inness
* [http://www.artchive.com/artchive/I/inness.html George Inness on artchive.com]
* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/inness_george.html ArtCyclopedia: George Inness]
* [http://www.askart.com/askart/artist.aspx?artist=2173 Inness on AskArt.com]
* [http://www.clarkart.edu/exhibitions/whistler/content/home.cfm Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute 2008 exhibition "Like Breath on Glass: Whistler, Inness, and the Art of Painting Softly."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303180958/http://www.clarkart.edu/exhibitions/whistler/content/home.cfm |date=March 3, 2016 }}
* [https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703437304576120652278312150?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_LifestyleArtEnt "Up from the Basement – To Stardom"], ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'', Retrieved December 2, 2011
* [http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/38038/rec/39 American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School], an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Inness (see index)
* [http://gildedage2.omeka.net/exhibits/show/highlights/artists/inness Documenting the Gilded Age: New York City Exhibitions at the Turn of the 20th Century]. A [[New York Art Resources Consortium]] project. Exhibition catalogs, a biographical description, and an essay by Thomas Kirby on Inness.

{{Hudson River School}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Inness, George}}
[[Category:1825 births]]
[[Category:1894 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Newburgh, New York]]
[[Category:American Swedenborgians]]
[[Category:19th-century American painters]]
[[Category:American male painters]]
[[Category:American landscape painters]]
[[Category:Artists from Montclair, New Jersey]]
[[Category:Tonalism]]
[[Category:Campagna Romana]]
[[Category:Painters from Newark, New Jersey]]
[[Category:People from Eagleswood Township, New Jersey]]
[[Category:Painters from Florida]]
[[Category:Tarpon Springs, Florida]]
[[Category:Hudson River School painters]]
[[Category:Burials at Rosedale Cemetery (Orange, New Jersey)]]