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George Inness[in´is] Pronunciation Key, 1825–94, American landscape painter, b. Newburgh, N.Y. His father intended Inness to be a grocer, but he showed artistic talent at an early age and was apprenticed to an engraver. In 1845 he opened a studio in New York City, devoting himself to painting, and two years later with a friend's aid was able to go to Rome. He made a subsequent visit to Rome in 1851, and in 1854 he and his wife went to Paris. On their return they settled in Medfield, Mass. There Inness painted many of his best-known canvases. In later life he enjoyed a high reputation, maintaining studios in New York City and in Montclair, N.J., where most of his last 20 years were spent. The early work of Inness is in the manner of the Hudson River school. His panoramic Peace and Plenty (Metropolitan Mus.) is characteristic of this period. But in a short time he discovered his own personal style which became freer, more intimate, and richer in color. In his later works his subjects, covering a wide range of light effects, became a vehicle for the expression of a consistently romantic mood. Inness was a Swedenborgian and sought the mystical in nature. Among his principal works are Rainbow after a Storm and Millpond (Art Inst., Chicago); Delaware Valley, Autumn Oaks, and Evening : Medfield, Mass. (Metropolitan Mus.); June (1882; Brooklyn Mus., N.Y.); Georgia Pines and Niagara (National Gall. of Art, Washington, D.C.). Inness died in Scotland.
See his Life, Art and Letters, introd. by E. Daingerfield (1969); study by A. Werner (1973).
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