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Re: (erielack) George Inness

George Inness (1825-1894) was one of America's foremost landscape artists
of the 1800's.  He was born near Newburgh, New York, but made Montclair
his permanent home in 1878.  

During the 1800's railroads and steamships were an increasingly important
part of the physical as well as phychological landscape.  A small
minority of artists loved to paint them, Claude Monet for instance was
fascinated by the interplay of light and locomotive smoke.  Yet most
landscape artists studiously ignored railroads as unwelcome intrusions of
industrialism.  At first Inness shared this view, but then he reluctanly
accepted an important commission.  A series of paintings would feature
the newly completed Lackawanna Railroad.  The line's president wanted to
celebrate the road reaching Scranton, Pennsylvania.  Knowing that the
finished paintings would be used for advertising, Inness considered the
project too commercial.  But in time, the challenge of doing something
artistically worthwhile with an "industrial" subject proved irresistable.
 Sadly the Lackawanna's president discarded the best of these works,
Lackawanna Valley (1855), because Inness had left too many tracks empty
in the freight yard and the railroad's herald was not sufficiently
prominent on the tenders.  Inness himself rescued the painting from
obscurity and it has since taken its place among the great landscapes of
the era.  (The entire series is reproduced in American Paradise, the
World of the Hudson River School by John K. Howat, Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York, 1987.).  

Inness paintings of the Delaware Water Gap often included a train, and
while living in Montclair he produced several canvases that include the
trains of Montclair and Greenwood Lake.   

His early work was typical of the Hudson River School painters consisting
of meticulously detailed landscapes that are also rich in narrative or
symbolic elements.  In his later work, the brushwork becomes more fluid
and the paintings are less concerned with specific scenic details than
with conveying an overall mood.  His work at this time has been compared
to the French Barbizon School painters and England's John Constable.  Yet
Inness himself would have rejected such comparisons.  He was a fiercely
independent artist and prided himself on always being at the forefront of
important artistic trends.

While the Lackawanna Railroad paintings clearly belong to the Inness of
the Hudson River School, the Montclair and Greenwood Lake paintings are
from his later period.  These may be furthur divided into those set in or
near Montclair and those near Pompton.  But more than geography divides
them.  A Short Cut to Watchung Station, and Winter at Montclair recieved
widespread attention and have been featured in a number of books both
about the artist and American paintings.  Their provenace is easily
traced and there are no questions about authenticity.

The Pompton paintings are not so fortunate.  These show the railroads at
or near Pomton which would of course have been readily accessable by
train from Montclair.  They are generally smaller and less known works. 
Perhaps they were simply for practise and study.  Because they never had
widespread exposure and today are scattered in private collections, it
has been hard to verify their provenance.  No less an authority than the
National Gallery of Art cautions that not all of these works may be
authentic.

Be they famous, obscure, or even done by some other artist, here is a
list of Inness paintings showing the Montclair and Greenwood Lake:

1877, Pompton Junction, New Jersey, 12X18".  Telegraph poles and track
recede on the right side of the canvas while the left is dominated by an
unidentified marsh.  In the distance a train is pulling out of a station.
 There are hills in the far distance.  Neither the train or the station
is shown in enough detail to identify them.  While the shape of the hills
in the background suggests that the train came from the north on the
Montclair, the marsh suggests that the train is on the Midland.  In
either case, it is very bucolic scene.

Provenience:  Inness Memorial Exhibition, 1894.  W.A. White Collection,
Boston, Mass.. Albert R. Jones Collection, Kansas City, Mo..

1883, A Short Cut to Watchung Station, New Jersey.  Alternate title:
Short Cut, Watchung Station, New Jersey.  38X29".  As with many great
paintings this work can be appreciated on many levels.  At first viewing,
it is a simple autumn scene.  The foreground and middle distance are
filled by a meadow and a ditch.  A man is crossing the ditch on a wooden
footbridge while in the far background a train is racing in the opposite
direction.  A woman sits in the field watching the train and other
figures who appear to be working in the meadow beyond.  The time is
Indian Summer, the sky is blue, and vegitation is rich and full.  But
then the viewer begins thinking.  The man is walking with a stick,
possibly it is the autumn of his life as well.  His days may be drawing
to close, as symbolized by the racing train and the woman who sits
watching this new technology.  Whatever the interpretation, this was an
important work for both Inness and American Art.  It was shown at the
Paris Exposition Universalle in 1889 where it received a medal.  More
importantly, it helped maintain the European repution of American
painters at a time of revolutionary changes in the arts.  

Provenince:  Special Exhibition of the Works of George Inness, 1884. 
Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1889.  Collection J. Abner Harper, New
York.  R. Austen Robertson.  W.P. Wilstach, Philadelphia, Pa..
Philadelphia Museum of Art.

1884, Winter at Montclair, New Jersey. alternate title: Winter Morning,
Montclair.  22X36".  Appearing in Harper's Weekly in 1894, and in books
several times since, this work has been widely seen.  It shows two women
hanging laundry in a snowly landscape.  One is kneeling over a basket of
clothes while the other reaches up to the clothesline.  In the middle
distance are two othr figures, a boy walking in the field to the right of
the women and a man walking along the clothesline to their right.  In the
far distance a train passes to the left.  The locomotive is not shown in
detail but a ballon stack and plume of smoke are visable.

Provenience:  Inness Memorial Exhibition, 1894.  Collection of E.W. Bass.
 Mrs. Chauncey Balir, Chicago, Il..  Mr. & Mrs. George B. Harrington,
Chicago, Il.  

1883, Pompton, New Jersey.  9 3/4 X 14 1/2".  This is Inness's clearest
depiction of a train since the Lackawanna Railroad commission.  A balloon
stacked locomotive pulls a train to the left.  Th track sits on a rasied
embankment.  This may depict the Montclair line as it passes through
Riverdale at the present-day atheletic fields.  High hills are in the
background and the foreground is partially shaded.  There are no figures
in the landscape.  Other than a fence running up to the embankment, the
train dominates the scene but as before, there are no details of the
locomotive or rolling stock.

Provenince:  Collection of H.H. Johnson, Cleveland, Oh..  Mr. & Mrs.
Andrew Dempsey, Cleveland, Oh..


On Wed, 27 Mar 2002 19:43:23 -0500 "Joshua K. Blay"
<joshuakblay_@_hotmail.com> writes:
> I know some about the artist and his works, Lackawanna Valley and the 
> two of 
> the Delaware Water Gap, but if anyone knows anything about him and 
> more of 
> his relationship with the DL&W that would be great!  Thanks!
> 
> 
> Joshua
> http://www.geocities.com/blayjk06
> 
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
> Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. 
> http://www.hotmail.com
> 


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