Interpretive Resource

George Inness
American, 1825-1894
George Inness's early paintings are similar to Hudson River School landscapes. However, following travels in France during the early 1850s, he also adapted stylistic elements of the French Barbizon school.

Two factors may have led to this change. First, the teachings of religious mystic Emanuel Swedenborg deeply affected Inness and contributed to the increasingly allusive, expressive quality of his later art. Second, an extended visit to Italy from 1870 until 1874 prompted the artist to develop an even more diffuse style, characterized by interest in the effects of light and subtle transitions of colors.