George Inness
George Inness was an American artist who lived from 1825 to 1904. He is most known for his gorgeous landscapes of the United States and abroad. Inness is commonly known as the Father of American landscape painting. Though associated with both the Hudson River School of Art and Barbizon art styles, Inness falls into a category all of his own. Along with James Whistler, he helped create the Tonalism style, which was a uniquely American style of art.
Inness was born in Newburgh, New York to a very large family. When he was five years old, his family moved to New Jersey. In 1839, when Inness was fourteen years old, he began an apprenticeship under the artist, John Jesse Barker, though it only lasted several months. Throughout the 1840s, Inness continued his art education. He took classes at the National Academy of Design in New York City. There, he studied under prominent Hudson River School artists, Thomas Cole and Asher Durand. Inness exhibited his first painting in 1844 at an exhibition at the National Academy of Design.
In the 1850s, Inness traveled abroad to Europe to study the great landscape artists. He spent time in Rome, Italy, and Paris, France. In France, he was introduced to the Barbizon art style. He fell in love with the moodiness of the landscapes painted in the Barbizon style. Inness is credited with bringing that style from Europe to the United States. Through the 1860s and 1870s, Inness moved around a lot, spending time in both Europe and the United States. In 1884, he was honored with a retrospective of his art by the American Art Association, a high compliment for a living artist. He worked as a teacher, and one of his more famous students includes the American decorative artist, Louis Comfort Tiffany.
In the 1880s and 1890s, Inness became deeply influenced by Swedenborgianism. The concepts found in that theology found their way into his art. These include the idea that everything in nature is constantly fed their life force from God himself, as well as the notion that there is a mystical relationship that humans have with the natural world. George Inness died in 1894 at 69 years old while on a trip to Scotland. According to his son, they were watching the sunset when Inness threw up his hands exclaiming “My God! Oh, how beautiful!” before falling to the ground dead.
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