George Inness

George Inness was an American landscape painter whose work grew steadily more poetic and personal over his life. Born in New York in 1825, he started within the detailed Hudson River School tradition but was drawn to the softer, mood-filled landscapes of the French Barbizon painters. Over time his scenes lost their crisp detail and became hazy, glowing evocations of mood and weather.

His later work was shaped by deep spiritual beliefs, and he saw landscape painting as a way to express feeling and the presence of something greater in nature. Trees, fields, and skies dissolve into warm, unified color in his mature canvases. Inness is now regarded as one of the most important American landscape painters of the nineteenth century and a key figure in tonal painting.