George Inness (1825-1894)

Aliases: George Innes (1825); George Inness Sr.

Professions: Painter

George Inness (1825-1894)
George Inness (1825-1894)
Landscape Near Perugia
George Inness 1825-1894 , Afterglow

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George Inness Biography

(b Newburgh, NY, 1 May 1825; d Bridge of Allan, Central Scotland, 3 Aug 1894). American painter. He grew up in Newark, NJ, and New York City, and received his first artistic training with John Jesse Barker (fl 1815–56), an itinerant artist claiming to be a student of Thomas Sully. Between 1841 and 1843 Inness was apprenticed to the engravers Sherman & Smith in New York. More significant was his study in 1843 with Régis-François Gignoux, a student of Paul Delaroche and a recent immigrant from France, whose landscapes were delicate and sweet. Though Gignoux seems to have had little influence on the development of Inness’s style, the Frenchman did provide him with a knowledge of European masters. Inness’s early attraction to the Old Masters, especially to Claude Lorrain, is evident in his landscapes of the 1840s, and it prompted him to visit Italy in 1851–2. His Bit of the Roman Aqueduct (c. 1852; Atlanta, GA, High Mus. A.) is especially derivative of Claude in its classical composition and descriptive details.

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