George Inness

American, 1825 - 1894

Explore Selected Works

The image displays a dark green field stretching into the distance. A line of trees and small structures can be seen near the center of the image. One of the structures shows a plume of smoke coming from a small chimney. In front of the structure is a small figure who appears to be wearing a dress. The color palette features earthy tones, with deep greens in the foreground transitioning to softer browns and blues in the distance. The sky is a light blue but is partially obscured by grey and beige clouds. At the center is a full moon, only slightly above the horizon and glowing warmly.
George Inness, Harvest Moon, 1891, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Bequest of Mabel Stevens Smithers), 2014.136.73

Harvest Moon

George Inness · 1891 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.136.73

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.”
George Inness, Sunset in the Woods, 1891, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund), 2014.79.43

Sunset in the Woods

George Inness · 1891 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.79.43

George Inness, Hillside at Étretat, 1876, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund and William A. Clark Fund), 2014.136.79

Hillside at Étretat

George Inness · 1876 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.136.79

George Inness, Lake Albano, Sunset, c. 1874, oil on canvas, Gift of Alice Dodge in memory of her father, Henry Percival Dodge, 1962.2.1

Lake Albano, Sunset

George Inness · c. 1874 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1962.2.1

The painting depicts a view overlooking a valley with a river in the distance. The sky is painted in shades of light blue with faint pinks. There is a hill in the front of the image, and below it are distant landscapes that appear hazy. On the hill are large trees and fields with earthy green and brown tones. There are two small figures nearby towards the front of the painting, one of which appears to be on horseback. That figure appears to wear a red dress with a white shawl, while a figure walking behind the horse wears darker colors.
George Inness, View of the Tiber near Perugia, 1872-1874, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1973.16.1

View of the Tiber near Perugia

George Inness · 1872-1874 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1973.16.1

George Inness, Harvest Scene in the Delaware Valley, 1867, oil on canvas, Gift of Ina and Jack Kay, 2002.154.1

Harvest Scene in the Delaware Valley

George Inness · 1867 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2002.154.1

We look across and down into a valley with a person sitting near a tall tree and a train puffing smoke beyond, all enclosed by a band of mountains in the distance in this horizontal landscape painting. Closest to us, several broken, jagged tree stumps are spaced across the painting’s width. A little distance away and to our left, the person wears a yellow, broad-brimmed hat, red vest, and gray pants. He reclines propped on his left elbow near a walking path beside a tall, slender tree with golden leaves. The green meadow stretching in front of him is dotted with tree stumps cut close to the ground. Beyond the meadow, puffs of white smoke trail behind a long steam locomotive that crosses a bridge spanning a tree-filled ravine, headed to our left. The ravine creates a diagonal line across the canvas, moving subtly away from us to our left. The train has climbed out of the valley, away from a cluster of brick-red buildings. The most prominent structure is a train roundhouse, a large building with a high, domed roof to the right of the tracks. Smoke rises from chimneys on long, warehouse-like buildings, and a steeple and smaller structures suggest a church and homes to our left. Hazy in the distance, a row of mountains lines the horizon, which comes about halfway up the composition. The sky above deepens from pale, shell pink over the mountains to watery, pale blue above. The artist signed the work in tiny letters in the lower left corner: “G. Inness.”
George Inness, The Lackawanna Valley, c. 1856, oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. Huttleston Rogers, 1945.4.1

The Lackawanna Valley

George Inness · c. 1856 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1945.4.1

George Inness, Landscape, c. 1852, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Gift of William Wilson Corcoran), 2014.136.109

Landscape

George Inness · c. 1852 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.136.109

Elbridge Kingsley, Morning, 1889, wood engraving, Reba and Dave Williams Collection, Gift of Reba and Dave Williams, 2008.115.2880

Morning

Elbridge Kingsley · 1889 · wood engraving ·  Accession ID  2008.115.2880

Bibliography

1917

  • Inness, George, Jr. Life, Art, and Letters of George Inness. New York, 1917.

1971

  • Cikovsky, Nicolai, Jr. George Inness. New York, 1971.

1977

  • Cikovsky, Nicolai, Jr., and Michael Quick. George Inness. Los Angeles, 1977.

1993

  • Cikovsky, Nicolai, Jr. George Inness. New York, 1993.

1996

  • Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 349-350.