Inness Landscapes

This comprehensive collection of the work of one of America's great landscape painters - the first such collection to be reproduced entirely in color - traces the evolution of George Inness' style from his early, classical landscape approach through the more rugged, personal style of his intermediate work, to the magically delicate impressions typical of his later paintings. In his penetrating discussion of the artist whom he calls the "father of the American landscape," internationally known art critic Alfred Werner presents an illuminating description of the frail, sensitive man whose canvases preserve an "image of green, pre-industrial America" of the nineteenth century. Although Inness was influenced successively by the old masters, by the Hudson River School, and by the Barbizon School, he imitated none of them. Remarkable changes took place in his philosophy and style as his life and work progressed, but the Inness touch is apparent in each of his paintings. His early work is highly representational, polished, and precisely detailed; his subject matter was the Italian landscape, which he approached with a combination of classical harmony and romantic overtones. As his independent style emerged, Inness began to simplify and turned from traditional brown tones to vibrant colors. Finally, in paintings done in the last decade of his life, there is a filmy, dreamlike quality created by delicacy of brushwork, omission of detail, and ethereal color. Enamored of nature, Inness painted it in all its moods, in Europe as well as America. However, most of his work was done from sketches or memories of the northeastern United States - the Hudson and Delaware River valleys and the environs of Boston. Although a number of his landscapes are renderings of specific areas and scenes, the majority are impressions, transformations of nature, recurring themes - often inspired by memory and imagination - that capture the feeling of rural American in Inness' lifetime. -- from back cover.