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George Inness
Evening, 1863
A leading figure of the Hudson River school, George Inness is best known for serene landscapes that resonate with the ideal of America as the New Eden. Evening captures two men, one piling wood and another driving his livestock home, after a long day's work. The harmonious copper tones of sunset lend the activities a certain quietude, recalling the effects of French Barbizon painters. The painting likely invokes the artist's spiritual beliefs. In 1863, at the height of the American Civil War, Inness moved his studio from a farm in Massachusetts to a religious utopian community in New Jersey. The group's Swedenborgian conviction that the divine presence resided in all material things became a guiding inspiration for the remainder of his career. |