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Lot Essay
George Inness distinguished himself among the Hudson River School painters by pursuing a more modern aesthetic of landscape painting. Unlike his contemporaries who believed in creating realistic canvases of nature's vastness, Inness felt that "paintings were not necessarily pictures, and it was the artist's function, even his obligation, by an aesthetic and expressive reorganization, to interpret nature and not merely depict it." (N. Cikovsky, Jr., M. Quick, George Inness, Los Angeles, California, 1985, p. 19) Inness' body of work from the 1870s is widely admired today. While paintings from this decade are familiar in composition and manner to Hudson River School landscapes of the era, these works also begin to show the artist's painting philosophy of incorporating atmospheric climate and expression which brings deeper spiritual meaning into his compositions. Inness went on to produce a body of work marked by a more subjective and ultimately more modern aesthetic than that of his contemporaries. With its dramatic composition and high degree of finish, Conway Valley is an extraordinary masterwork from this important transitional phase in the artist's career.
Beginning in the 1870s, "Inness was exposed to several strong new influences upon his style and upon his attitude toward art. As a result, this decade was a period of considerable growth, as he assembled the skills that he would use in the 1880s to forge his distinctive late style. During this time he also made the transition from being considered a leading landscape painter to being generally recognized as dean of American landscape painters." (M. Quick, George Inness: A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. one, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2007, p. 319) Despite the artist's commercial success with his landscape paintings of the 1860s, he was eager to try new things. In 1870 Inness left New York in search of inspiration and new subject matter. He traveled to Rome, arranging with Williams & Everett, the leading Boston gallery, to advance him money against commissions they would make on the sale of his paintings produced in Europe. While based in Rome largely until 1874, Inness fell in with a group of other expatriate artists, among them Elihu Vedder and Chauncey Bradley Ives. Inness traveled extensively with his fellow artists, spending time in Perugia and Venice, Italy, as well as Paris, Etretat and Normandy, France. Prior to his European travels, Inness executed classic Hudson Valley landscapes utilizing thinly painted layers of color to achieve the tranquil and subdued effect of rich, harmonious color within a more traditional Hudson River School scene. While abroad and likely inspired by Elihu Vedder's intensely spiritual approach to painting, Inness began to utilize bolder, more conspicuous brushwork that would come to mark his fiery New York landscapes toward the end of the decade and into the 1880s.
In early 1875 Inness returned to America, staying mainly in Boston. That year was a productive one, during which time the artist created formally and technically daring works of considerable power and appeal. In May, apparently on impulse, Inness left Boston for a summer of painting in Conway, New Hampshire. According to Michael Quick, "This campaign was an important departure in Inness' search for American subject matter...In sketching subjects in New Hampshire, he was attempting to render grand, recognizable scenery. Because this territory was well traveled by numerous Hudson River School artists, the challenge facing Inness was to interpret the oft-recorded scenery in fresh ways. He delighted critics with his perceptive treatments of new motifs and his often spirited portrayals of the familiar ones. One reviewer noted, 'We have here the White Mountains as we bring them away in our minds, and as we love to dwell upon them in our memories. The realistic element draws you into the scenes, and the spiritualistic, which, after all is the absolutely realistic, lifts you above them into the highest realms of thought.' Weather again played an important part in dramatizing the views, sometimes at the expense of the scenery. The weather effects allowed Inness to interpret the standard views in more personal, poetic ways. He even painted Mount Washington in a relaxed and personal way, charging the scene with a voluptuous color that registers an emotional response." (George Inness: A Catalogue Raisonné, pp. 339-40)
From his sudio in an old schooolhouse, Inness had a clear view across the valley of Mount Washington. The artist completed at least one finished painting of the subject while still in New Hampshire and subsequently produced other views of the majestic scene in his Boston studio. Conway Valley presents an expansive view, with a solitary man reclining on the grass in the foreground as two cows graze behind him in a field that stretches across the middle ground. At left, the pasture angles slightly downward, directing the viewer's gaze towards a verdant grove of trees growing farther down the slope. At the far right, a steeple rises with a house and road hidden by trees in the near distance. From a slightly elevated vantage point Mount Washington is presented as a centerpiece dominating the entire skyline, flanked by more distant peaks on either side. A scattering of small storm clouds float into view from the right, dappling the earth with darker streaks intermingled with bursts of light that pierce the foliage and rake across the landscape. Inness' desire to relay emotional power through line, color and form in the present work is profound. The layered, finely nuanced composition is calm and quiet while at the time the painting evokes a subtly disquieting aura.
Beginning in the 1870s, "Inness was exposed to several strong new influences upon his style and upon his attitude toward art. As a result, this decade was a period of considerable growth, as he assembled the skills that he would use in the 1880s to forge his distinctive late style. During this time he also made the transition from being considered a leading landscape painter to being generally recognized as dean of American landscape painters." (M. Quick, George Inness: A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. one, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2007, p. 319) Despite the artist's commercial success with his landscape paintings of the 1860s, he was eager to try new things. In 1870 Inness left New York in search of inspiration and new subject matter. He traveled to Rome, arranging with Williams & Everett, the leading Boston gallery, to advance him money against commissions they would make on the sale of his paintings produced in Europe. While based in Rome largely until 1874, Inness fell in with a group of other expatriate artists, among them Elihu Vedder and Chauncey Bradley Ives. Inness traveled extensively with his fellow artists, spending time in Perugia and Venice, Italy, as well as Paris, Etretat and Normandy, France. Prior to his European travels, Inness executed classic Hudson Valley landscapes utilizing thinly painted layers of color to achieve the tranquil and subdued effect of rich, harmonious color within a more traditional Hudson River School scene. While abroad and likely inspired by Elihu Vedder's intensely spiritual approach to painting, Inness began to utilize bolder, more conspicuous brushwork that would come to mark his fiery New York landscapes toward the end of the decade and into the 1880s.
In early 1875 Inness returned to America, staying mainly in Boston. That year was a productive one, during which time the artist created formally and technically daring works of considerable power and appeal. In May, apparently on impulse, Inness left Boston for a summer of painting in Conway, New Hampshire. According to Michael Quick, "This campaign was an important departure in Inness' search for American subject matter...In sketching subjects in New Hampshire, he was attempting to render grand, recognizable scenery. Because this territory was well traveled by numerous Hudson River School artists, the challenge facing Inness was to interpret the oft-recorded scenery in fresh ways. He delighted critics with his perceptive treatments of new motifs and his often spirited portrayals of the familiar ones. One reviewer noted, 'We have here the White Mountains as we bring them away in our minds, and as we love to dwell upon them in our memories. The realistic element draws you into the scenes, and the spiritualistic, which, after all is the absolutely realistic, lifts you above them into the highest realms of thought.' Weather again played an important part in dramatizing the views, sometimes at the expense of the scenery. The weather effects allowed Inness to interpret the standard views in more personal, poetic ways. He even painted Mount Washington in a relaxed and personal way, charging the scene with a voluptuous color that registers an emotional response." (George Inness: A Catalogue Raisonné, pp. 339-40)
From his sudio in an old schooolhouse, Inness had a clear view across the valley of Mount Washington. The artist completed at least one finished painting of the subject while still in New Hampshire and subsequently produced other views of the majestic scene in his Boston studio. Conway Valley presents an expansive view, with a solitary man reclining on the grass in the foreground as two cows graze behind him in a field that stretches across the middle ground. At left, the pasture angles slightly downward, directing the viewer's gaze towards a verdant grove of trees growing farther down the slope. At the far right, a steeple rises with a house and road hidden by trees in the near distance. From a slightly elevated vantage point Mount Washington is presented as a centerpiece dominating the entire skyline, flanked by more distant peaks on either side. A scattering of small storm clouds float into view from the right, dappling the earth with darker streaks intermingled with bursts of light that pierce the foliage and rake across the landscape. Inness' desire to relay emotional power through line, color and form in the present work is profound. The layered, finely nuanced composition is calm and quiet while at the time the painting evokes a subtly disquieting aura.