George Inness
Painted 'The Lackawanna Valley' at 29, an artist who abandoned topographic detail for atmospheric color fields a decade before Impressionism.
1825–1894 (age 69)·19th-century American landscape painter·Birthday: May 1
Biography
George Inness completed 'The Lackawanna Valley' in 1855 for the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. The company commissioned the work but requested he add more trains; Inness complied, painting out a stand of trees. By the 1870s, he had abandoned the detailed style of the Hudson River School after exposure to the Barbizon School in France. Inness adopted a method of controlled improvisation, building landscapes in his studio from color studies made outdoors. His mature works, like 'Early Autumn, Montclair' (1888), prioritize emotional effect and unified tone over literal representation. The art dealer Thomas B. Clarke purchased and promoted Inness's late work, securing his financial stability. Inness died in 1894 while viewing a sunset in Bridge of Allan, Scotland. His synthesis of Barbizon mood with a personal, spiritual vision defined American Tonalism and influenced painters like John Henry Twachtman. The Metropolitan Museum of Art held a retrospective of his work in 1917.
#1 When George Was Born
The biggest hits of 1825
George's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1825Born
1830Started school
1838Became a teenager
1841Could drive
1843Could vote
1846Turned 21
1855Turned 30
1865Turned 40
President: Andrew Johnson
1875Turned 50
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1885Turned 60
Karl Benz builds the first gasoline-powered automobile
President: Grover Cleveland
1894Died at 69
President: Grover Cleveland
Key Achievements
- Painted 'The Lackawanna Valley' (1855), an early major American industrial landscape.
- Developed a mature Tonalist style in the 1870s and 1880s, producing over 1,000 works.
- Held a major retrospective at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1917, 23 years after his death.
Did You Know?
Inness suffered from epilepsy, which he believed heightened his spiritual perceptions.
He was largely self-taught after a brief apprenticeship with an engraver.
Inness died suddenly in 1894; his last word, reportedly, was 'Beautiful.'
“The true use of art is, first, to cultivate the artist's own spiritual nature.”
