Sunset in the Woods

1891

George Inness

Artist, American, 1825 - 1894

George Inness

Attributed to

A shaft of warm light from our left pierces a dark wood filled with tall trees in this horizontal landscape painting. The light falls on a stout white trunk and a portion of the moss-green forest floor near the center of the composition. The trunk is covered with patches of olive green and brown, while the other trees have high canopies of burnt-orange leaves, which reach off the top and side edges of the canvas. The ground is carpeted with growth painted in warm tones of brown and touches of scarlet red and pine green. A gray and brown boulder with a slash of rust orange near the center of the painting lies nestled among the trees beyond the white trunk. A lighter, emerald-green area glows to the left, in the distance beyond the boulder. The artist signed and dated the lower left, “G. Inness 1891.”

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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Purchased 1891 through (Thomas B. Clarke) by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1964

  • The Romantic Century, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1964, no catalogue.

1966

  • Past and Present: 250 Years of American Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, unpublished checklist.

1983

  • The Book of Nature: American Painters and teh Natural Sublime, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, 1983-1984, unnumbered catalogue.

1985

  • George Inness Retrospective, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Cleveland Museum of Art; Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Los Angeles Museum of Art; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985-1986, no. 54.

2005

  • Encouraging American Genius: Master Paintings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Parrish Art Museum, Southampton; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 2005-2007, checklist no.57.

2008

  • Nature as Nation: 19th-Century American Landscapes from the Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 30 August 2008-18 October 2009, unpublished checklist.

2013

  • American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013-28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.

Bibliography

n.d.

  • Correspondence between George Inness and Thomas B. Clarke_. Boston, July 1891; Massachusetts Historical Society, Norcross Collection, Boston.

  • Correspondence between George Inness and Thomas B. Clarke, 2 August 1891; Princeton University General Manuscripts Miscelleneous Collection, Box 5; Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton Univeristy.

  • Corcoran Gallery of Art Archives, Special Collections Research Center, George Washington University Libraries, Washington, DC: correspondence between Thomas B. Clarke and Mr. McGuire and Newman, 17 March 1891; correspondence between Thomas B. Clarke and the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 9 June 1891; correspondence between Thomas B. Clarke and Mr. McGuire, 15 July 1891; correspondence between Thomas B. Clarke and S. H. Kaufmann, 21 July, 3 August 1891; correspondence between Thomas B. Clarke and Corcoran Gallery of Art, 27 July 1891; RG2, Office of the Director records; Series 1, MacLeod, Barbarin and McGuire records, 1869-1915.

1905

  • Moser, James Honery. "Some Great Landscapes at the Corcoran Gallery." The Washington Post (5 March 1905): 1: 8.

1912

  • Henderson, Helen Weston. Art Treasures of Washington. Boston, 1912: 90-91.

1913

  • Art and Progress 4, no. 11 (September 1913): 1085, 1086 (frontispiece)

1914

  • Tindall, William. Standard History of the City of Washington from a Study of the Original Sources. Knoxville, 1914: 485.

1915

  • Bryant, Lorinda Munson. What Pieces to See in America. New York, 1915: 180, repro., 181.

1917

  • Bryant, Lorinda Munson. American Pictures and their Painters. New York, 1917: 48, repro. 49.

1926

  • Corcoran Gallery of Art. Illustrated Handbook of Paintings and Sculptures. Washington, D.C., 1926: 40, repro. 47.

1927

  • Mather, Frank Jewett, Jr., Charles Rufus Morey, William James Henderson. The American Spirit in Art. The Pageant of America. 15 vols. New Haven, 1927: 78, repro.

1931

  • Neuhaus, Eugen. The History and Ideals of American Art. Stanford, California, 1931: 97, repro.

1936

  • Mechlin, Leila. "Landscape Genius: George Inness, Represented in Capital, an American Master Who Pictured the Relation of Nature to Man." The Washington Star (25 July 1936): B: 3.

1939

  • Lewis, Elisabeth Ray. "Museum Treasure of the Week: The Corcoran Gallery Collection in Review: 'Homer, Ryder, Inness and Wyant.'" The Washington Post (23 July 1939): A:5.

1945

  • Watson, Jane. "New Inness Painting Is Given to Gallery." The Washington Post (1 July 1945): S: 4.

  • Mechlin, Leila. "The Art World: American Paintings Newly Acquired by National Gallery." The Washington Star (8 July 1945): C: 6.

1947

  • Corcoran Gallery of Art. Handbook of the American Paintings in the Collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, 1947: 40.

1965

  • Cikovsky, Jr., Nicolai. "The Life and Work of George Inness." Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1965: 154-55, fig. 110.

  • Ireland, LeRoy. The Works of George Inness: An Illustrated Catalogue Raisonné. Austin, 1965: 350, repro., no. 1372.

1966

  • Harithas, James. "250 Years of American Art [exh. review]." Apollo 84, no. 53 (July 1966): 70.

  • Phillips, Dorothy W. A Catalogue of the Collection of American Paintings in The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Vol. 1: Painters born before 1850. Washington, 1966: 119, repro. 120.

1967

  • Millard, Charles W. "Some Thoughts on American Painting [exh. cat]." Hudson Review 20, no. 2 (Summer 1967): 268, 272.

1968

  • Millard, Charles W. "Some Thoughts on American Painting." The Hudson Review 20 (Spring 1967- Windet 1968): 269, 272, repro.

1969

  • Scott, David W. "American Landscape: A Changing Frontier." Living Wilderness 33, no. 38 (Winter 1969): 12, repro.

1971

  • Cikovsky, Nicolai, Jr. George Inness. New York, 1971: 55-57, n.p. fig.80.

1975

  • Bermingham, Peter. American Art in the Barbizon Mood. Washington, 1975: 67, repro.

1977

  • Cikovsky, Nicolai, Jr. The Life and Works of George Inness. New York, 1977: 154-55.

1983

  • Landscapes That Display the Many Varieties of 'Sublime [exh. review].'" The New York Times (18 December 1983): A: 1.

1986

  • Forgey, Benjamin. "The Landscape of a Loner Go on View ar the National Gallery of Art [exh. review]." The Washington Post (22 June 1986): H: 1.

1993

  • Burchard, Hank. "Folk Art 'Visiones' Glow-in the Distance [exh. review]." The Washington Post (20 August 1993): N: 55.

  • Cikovsky, Nicolai, Jr. George Inness. New York, 1993: 113, repro.

1996

  • Abramson, Ronald D. "'My Favorite Painting': Discovering the Permanent Collection." _Night and Day (July/ Agust 1996): 15, repro.

  • Mazow, Leo G. "George Inness: Problems in Anti-Modernism." Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1996: 215.

2000

  • Cash, Sarah, with Terrie Sultan. American Treasures of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. New York, 2000: 101, repro.

2002

  • Heartney, Eleanor, ed. A Capital Collection: Masterworks from the Corcoran Gallery of Art. London, 2002: 122, 124, 125, repro.

2005

  • Bjelajac, David. American Art: A Cultural History. 2d ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 2005: 284, repro., 285.

  • Avery, Kevin J. Treasures from Olana: Landscapes by Frederic Edwin Church. Exh. cat. Olana State Histoire Site; Hudson, New York, 2005: 63, repro.

2007

  • Bennett, Lennie. "The Coming of Age of American Art [exh. review]." St. Petersburg Times (18 February 2007): 9L.

  • Quick, Michael. "The Works of the 1880's." In Goeroge Inness: A Catalogue Raisonne, by Michael Quick. 2 vols., Piscataway, New Jersey, 2007: 2: 28, repro.
    Quick, Michael. "In the Woods." In Goeroge Inness: A Catalogue Raisonne, by Michael Quick. 2 vols., Piscataway, New Jersey, 2007: 2: 179.
    Quick, Michael. "Sunset in the Woods." In Goeroge Inness: A Catalogue Raisonne, by Michael Quick. 2 vols., Piscataway, New Jersey, 2007: 2: 302, 304, 303, repro.
    Quick, Michael. "The Beeches." In Goeroge Inness: A Catalogue Raisonne, by Michael Quick. 2 vols., Piscataway, New Jersey, 2007: 2: 441.

2011

  • Staiti, Paul. "George Inness, Sunset in the Woods." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: 33, 174-175, 273, repro.

Inscriptions

lower left: G. Inness 1891

Wikidata ID

Q20190273

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