GEORGE INNESS
American, 18251894
Landscape (Figures in a Field),
1886
Oil on canvas. 30 x 20 in. (76 x 51 cm)
Gift of Edith L. and Martin E. Segal. 95.59
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Although his early landscapes show the influence of the Hudson River School,
Inness's trips to Italy in 1850, France in 185354, and both countries
in 187074 had a profound effect on his work. While in Europe, Inness
was greatly impressed by the Barbizon School of landscape painting, with
its emphasis on tonality. From 1880 forward, his landscapes became less
literal and more personal visions of nature. His independent and poetic
style, with light as its true subject, emerged at about the same time that
Impressionism was gaining strength; Inness's isolated vignettes of nature,
with their small figures, are some of his most accomplished paintings. |
Landscape (Figures in a Field), an example of his late style, is
probably not a topographical depiction of a particular place but rather
a poetic vision of a scene, depicted in a sweeping, summary style that only
generally suggests landscape forms; the subject here is the mood of the
scene, communicated by light filtering through mist and haze. |
