George Inness

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George Inness, before 1867
Train in the Lackawanna Valley, 1855
Lake Alban , Italy , 1869
Indian Summer, 1894

George Inness (born May 1, 1825 in Newburgh , Orange County , New York , † August 3, 1894 in Bridge of Allan , Scotland ) was an American tonalist painter .

life and work

Inness began his artistic career in the style of the Hudson River School painters . However, during his travels to Paris in the early 1850s, he came under the influence of artists from the Barbizon French School . Barbizon landscape painting was known for its loose brushwork, dark palette and the emphasis on moods. Inness quickly became the American exponent of the Barbizon style, which he developed into his most own. He was valued as the best American landscape painter of his time.

Inness was the fifth of 13 children at a grocer. His family moved to Newark when he was about four years old. As a teenager, he worked as a map engraver, sketching natural scenes on the edges. During this period he drew the attention of fellow artist Régis Gignoux , to whom he soon moved to New York City to study with him. When Inness was in his early twenties, a patron named Ogden Haggerty paid him to travel to Europe to paint and learn. He spent a year in Italy and another year in France before returning to the United States.

During the 1850s, Inness was commissioned by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad to use paintings to document the growth of this railroad company in the early industrial United States. After he had been an associate member ( ANA ) of the New York National Academy of Design since 1853 , he was elected a full member ( NA ) of this institution in 1868 .

In addition to painting from the Barbizon School , which he had met in France, Inness was heavily influenced by Emanuel Swedenborg's theology . Introduced to Swedenborgian ideas by artist William Page in the 1860s , he drew inspiration for the divine in creation from these ideas, particularly the notion that everything in nature has a corresponding relationship with something spiritual and thus an "influx" from God gets to exist continuously.

Inness was also influenced by William James (who was also influenced by Swedenborg). In particular, he was inspired by James' idea of ​​consciousness as a “stream of thoughts” and also his ideas about how mystical experiences shape the individual's perspective on nature.

literature

Web links

Commons : George Inness  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ George Inness, ANA 1853, NA 1868 . tfaoi.com - The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts; accessed on May 30, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Inness, George
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American tonalist painter
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1825
PLACE OF BIRTH Newburgh , New York
DATE OF DEATH August 3, 1894
Place of death Bridge of Allan , Scotland