:TC. ¦¦<¦¦ : y ' ' YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY The Estate of KATHERINE S. DREIER FIFTY PAINTINGS BY GEORGE INNESS introduction by Elliott Daingerfield New York PRIVATELY PRINTED MMCXIII Copyright, 19 13 by Frederic Fairchild Sherman INTRODUCTION GEORGE INNESS IO one who intends making the study of the work of a master in painting there is an intense interest in knowing the paths through which he has walked, the difn* culties he has surmounted and the beginnings of his labors — the formative processes as well as the sue* cessful expression which is the result of his labor. That no such complete analysis of the life*work of George Inness has been made is well known, although much has been said and written of him. So much, in fact, that we all have a partial knowledge, a speaking acquaintance, so to say, yet few who see or who own his pictures would venture to express complete under* standing of a mind that was gentle and child4ike at times, yet always complex and difficult, even erratic, and which with advancing years grew to be highly nervous — vastly emotional — intensely interested in philosophical research when considering questions relative to art or religion, the two subjects which lay at the core of his deepest sympathies and which he intermarried in a way that, for the outsider, the lis* tener, -was most distracting. Yet I do not believe that anyone, whether craftsman or connoisseur, will ever rightly comprehend the art of George Inness unless he places himself squarely on the platform of the man's re* hgious convictions, and seeks in his works those elim* inations of the gross, or the material, in order that the spiritual may be seen, which was the aim and intent of his best and highest effort. The representation of things was needful merely that significance might be fully understood. That he was willing to give up near* ly the half of a lifetime to the mastery of things, of the craft which -would assure him power in this elim* ination is characteristic of the man, — "I paint in all these details in order that I may know how to paint them out", he said. The fabric then, the substructure, is never fully seen in the noble later works of the master, yet it would be fantastic to think it absent, or that he had achieved this nobility without the long process of trained observation, effort, and rendering, for the painter must practice his processes as constantly as must a musician labor with the scales. ^A^herever and whenever the opportunity comes to study and know the great painter, it becomes our duty to seize it, for he is very rich in interest, intense in effort, and dramatic in result, and above all, what he did he did for us, his countrymen, and we should know him as we know a statesman or a poet who has ennobled his time and his people. The grouping of the following pictures into pe* riods of longer or shorter time, is done to aid in this knowledge, and while one may not be dogmatic in as* signing a date to a particular work, since Inness was 6 habitually careless about dating his work and, also, because upon many canvasses the date has been sup* plied by other hands, and wrongly, still there is a lati* tude which maybe accepted, and which will do slight harm to a right understanding of the beautiful pictures we have before us. The earlier works, running from number i to num* ber 6 are all unmistakably filled with that conscien* tious fidehty which makes him master of detail, are delightful in just that open door quality of mind which was present with him as he -worked. One sees at a glance, (if indeed one has the rhythmical sense) that Inness always 'felt' composition both of hne and mass; that he knew, also, projection and scale. Seldom does he offend by an over large or an over small grouping in a given space. At no time a decorator in the sense used by the mural painter, there is ever a symmetry and style of placement in these early works which pro* claim him a master of composition almost by intuition. Try, for a moment, the rendering of any one of these works into mere outline, and you gain part of the idea I mean, — add to this the color spots, and his 'largeness' even in the more elaborate canvases is felt at once . Then proceed to an observation of the works here chosen to mark what may be called the middle period, and we see, easily, his growth in expression, the enlarging of his power with no loss of accuracy, no omission of essentials, but -with less of the surface of things, less that is of doubtful importance, less re* flection of others, and a broader vision. To many painters and even to some collectors, these earlier works are more delightful. The Hobbema* hke dehcacy of leafage, the wealth of detail, done with a touch quite as sure as the Dutch master, and the add* ed charm which comes from great distances with the aerial perspective and the panoramic vision which he employed in some of the smaller canvases. The paint* ing, also, was done in an understandable way — there were no habits, no processes -which interfere with a directness of statement. To some folk painting is merely the sitting down and copying of forms in their relations to one another, -with small appreciation on the part of such people of the infinite difficulties of color, tone, balance, rhythm, weather, knowledge of sky, of time, of the intricate mysteries oflight and atmosphere. Thatlnnessachiev* ed these things in much of his early work is true, and we are not in error in loving them. The influence upon ourselves is nearly always from the objective to the subjective, and if we find a man who in painting can give us, -without offense or loss of that relationship of parts which belongs to beauty, the completeness of things, -we may study and love him to advantage. It would be a very delightful thing if a writer could find -words to make plain all the many touches, hnes, spots and balances which a painter employs; if, in brief, he could tell people how it is done; but this may not be, — not any plainer is it than the language used by the painter himself in his work. 8 Consider for a moment this early work, ' 'Berkshire Hills," No. i. It is not truly a George Inness at all, except that he painted it. Rather it is an essay, an ad* venture into the realms of another's methods, another's processes by -which he has achieved, and Inness frank* ly seeks to acquaint himself with the habit of drawing, the characteristic treatment of foliage, the near and far ofthe scene. It is a composition purely intellec* tual and like many that the early Dutchmen have left behind them. Now examine the ' 'Passing Shower," No. 7. You have much the same spirit of composition. The road leads down into the middle distance and is lost behind the low hills. Sheep instead ofthe wagon*team are used to give movement and direction, but observe, there is weather here — the wind is in the trees — the same faithfulness in rendering leafage, but the leaves are merely part ofthe branches, and the branches mass into the full round tree -whipped by the -wind. The grove about the house in the middle distance is beau* tifully massed and its silhouette superb; and over all a sky that is masterly and wholly Inness. We may readily, then, say the master is coming into his own. Consider, now, another example — the picture in the Metropohtan Museum, No. 12, to discover two great beauties -which the painter is mastering as he develops, — the law of balance, and the beauty of de* sign in the skyline. In the first case you have the en* tire and majesticmass on the left ofthe canvas balanced adequately, almostperfectly,bythe single queer, prun* ed stump of an old tree. How interestingly this old tree is drawn, — how well it holds the attention. So -well, indeed, that -we are not disturbed by an other* wise overbalancing mass on the left. The curving hne leading into the picture helps all this, and if -we -will study the design ofthe whole earth mass as it breaks upon the luminous glory ofthe sky, we -will discover certain very fascinating items. The rounding mass of trees is saved from too great density by the opening ofthe hght. How artfully the figure is placed against the sky to break what otherwise would have been a too obvious angle, and the house, scarcely more than a gable showing, but just rightly placed to lure and to save the line from edginess. This very softening and tightening ofthe sky*line proves us in the presence of a master who understood his business. These brief suggestions may be applied to nearly all of these earlier works, and -will help in detecting that wider vision, more open handling, and increasing knowledge which gave us the great works of his mid* die period. Personally, it is in this and the later period that I enjoy Inness most. We here begin to see within the work the man himself, and who, having studied art at all does not know that profoundly great painting reveals to us the character of its creator — not charac* ter in a moral sense, although that may also find its expression, but that thing which we know as temper* ament. ^Ve know that there was a response in the spirit ofthe man to the stormy moods of nature, be* IO cause he has seized so readily the significant things which express its stress and put aside the lesser mat* ters of detail. No. 8 is a fine example of this. Painted -with a very direct touch, the assembled masses of cloud are portentous rather than active, and the subtle shadowed hush -which precedes the first rush of wind is superbly caught — and though there is more of detail than in his later work — the forms are not petty, and the trees admirably massed. Somewhere I think I have said that the sky is the voice in Inness's art. No one of our men, — not even Turner himself, or Constable, better understood sky structure. Observe in No. 15, a picture owned at present by Mr. "W. T. Evans, -who has owned many pictures by Inness and done much for the diffusion of knowledge of the master and his art, the broken, moist, flying fragments of cloud perfectly drawn and so true that a weather student may gauge each coming hour. This picture alone -would proclaim its painter a master. This weather quality in Mr. Inness's work in not alone shown in storm or sky. The "Gray, Lowery Day," No. 19, is precisely a -weather picture — the lush foliage is fairly adrip -with the presence of rain. No reproduction can adequately sho-w the subtlety of this quality in a picture which is very famous in the history of our art. For very long the property and the pride of Mr. Thomas B. Clarke -who -was during the last years ofthe painter's hfe his very right hand in the business side of his affairs, and who brought the paint* er's work to the attention of many who -would not 11 have known it, this picture reached a very high figure at the sale ofthe Clarke collection. In it and in No. 20 -we may study the painter's love for and command of those lush massesof green verdure which is so striking a feature of our landscape in the early summer, and we find this painter using a means of picture making scarcely known before. For him it -was enough to walk amid the open, leafy -wood to find all the subject matter necessary. Quite easily, also, he seems to have been able to pass from the vivid hfe ofthe summer to the crisp cold of -winter. The "Winter Morning — Montclair," No. 21, is a noble example, and the simple directness ofthe ele* ments in the composition astounding. One might be looking from a window. How superb and how signi* ficant is the drawing ofthe great log, the stump and the scattered limbs in the foreground, and if one choose he may let his imagination run, and find the whole of -winter stored in that fallen tree. This picture has about it an authority both of execution and design which makes us feel that the painter is assured of him* self— that he felt his knowledge and is ready to pass on to that realm of self expression which is the goal of all great art. Is it not true that the greatest things we do in hfe spring from a profound conviction that we are right? We may say of this third period that it is the time of his greatest art, his greatest accomplishments, know* ing his power he allowed full vent to his feeling. 12 Early morning, broad sunshine, storm, the sea, sun* set, moonrise, moonhght, winter, summer, all -were his themes, and -with each one he seems equally famil* iar. He painted the tall turpentine pines ofthe South with as much assurance as the flats of Jersey meadows. Nos. 41 and 46 are fine examples of these tall pine trees, and the No. 26 -with its deep woodsey quality and feeling is peculiarly fine. The picture is now in the National Gallery — Evans Collection. The "Moonrise," No. 24, is a rare Inness in that the picture is very simply composed, and the time is that exceedingly difficult moment when the moon rises just after dark giving its hght from the horizon's edge. The silence ofthe landscape made more intense by the deserted boat, its single mast, slender against the sky, is powerfully felt, and one feels that the earth is wait* ing in reverence the hght -which is born in the East. This is one of the very notable moonrise pictures paint* ed by Mr. Inness. The "Moonhght," No. 28, and now in the Chicago Institute, shows him in very characteristic mood and with the loose synthetic touch in full sway. The "Spring Blossoms," No. 30, a picture recently given to the Metropohtan Museum, is very typical of his use of simple means in the matter of form to express his thought, and the great reliance upon color. Color is the music in the art of George Inness. The great picture, "Nine O'clock," No. 36, is a powerful poem of American village hfe. Nowhere has Inness so perfectly expressed time, and when this J3 picture -was upon his easel he constantly said, "It must be the very hour", ^/hen this was achieved in the emotion ofthe work, — the merging and mystery of form and tone, he said, ' 'Let us make it so" — and the clock in the church steeple forever registers the paint* er's wish. Study the beautiful, graceful tree forms the artist employed, — his sense ofthe wisdom of thick and thin, — to use homely phrase, — the value of a plumed crest, or a massive body, to obscure or to reveal, these are all attributes in the art of our great landscape painter, of whom it may be said his song -was of the field and the -woods; lyric -when he willed and epic -with the story of passing forests, — and the winds obeyed him. It is but characteristic that he closed his labors with the profoundest of synthetic color harmonies. Elliott Daingerfield. 14 PLATES 1 THE BERKSHIRE HILLS COLLECTION OF GEORGE A. HEARN Canvas, 48 inches high, 73 inches wide. 2 HACKENSACK MEADOWS, SUNSET NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY Canvas, 17 inches high, 25 inches wide, signed at the left and dated, 1859. 3 SUMMER IN THE CATSKILLS BUTLER COLLECTION, ART INSTITUTE, CHICAGO Canvas, 20 inches high, 30 inches wide, signed at the left and dated, 1867. 4 AUTUMN OAKS METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART Canvas, 20 inches high, 29 l/z inches wide, signed at the right. 5 PEACE AND PLENTY HEARN COLLECTION, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART Canvas, 77 inches high, 112 inches wide, signed at the left and dated 1865. 6 PINE GROVE, BARBERINI VILLA, ALBANO, ITALY METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART Canvas, 77^ inches high, J 15 J£ inches wide, signed at the right and dated, J876. 7 A PASSING SHOWER COLLECTION OF GEORGE A. HEARN Canvas, 26 inches high, 40 inches -wide, signed at the left. 8 THE COMING STORM BUFFALO MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS Canvas, 25 !4 inches high, 38!^ inches wide, signed at the right and dated, 1878. 9 AN AUTUMN DAY COLLECTION OF MRS. ADRIAN VAN SINDEREN Canvas, 13 inches high, 19 inches wide, signed at the left and dated, 1885. JO PALISADES ON THE HUDSON COLLECTION OF LYMAN A. MILLS Canvas, 20 inches high, 30 inches wide, signed at the right. 1 1 ¦ 1 . y . V >\ I '! '|j-'' . ¦. 1 Ek ¦i ¦¦ < ?ms v' u A LIGHTHOUSE OFF NANTUCKET COLLECTION OF A. H. ALKER Canvas, \7% inches high, 25 J£ inches wide, signed at left and dated, 1879. \2 EVENING AT MEDFIELD HEARN COLLECTION, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART Canvas, 38 inches high, 63 inches wide, signed at the right and dated, J875. 13 AUTUMN NEAR MARSHFIELD Canvas, 16 inches high, 24 inches wide, signed at the left. 14 WHITE MOUNTAIN VALLEY Canvas, 20 inches high, 30 inches wide, signed at the right. J5 SUNSHINE AND CLOUDS COLLECTION OF WILLIAM T. EVANS Canvas, 27yi inches high, 41 inches wide, signed at the right and dated, 1883. J6 OCTOBER COLLECTION OF ALFRED T. WHITE Canvas, 20 inches high, 30 inches wide, signed at the left and dated, 1884. M WATCHING THE SUN GLOW COLLECTION OF GEORGE S. PALMER Canvas, 27 inches high, 22 inches wide, signed at the right. 18 A WINDY DAY COLLECTION OF A. H. ALKER Canvas, 20 inches high, 30 inches wide, signed at the right and dated, 1883. 19 GRAY LOWERY DAY Canvas, J6 inches high, 24 inches wide, signed at the right and dated, 1877. 20 SUMMER FOLIAGE COLLECTION OF WILLIAM MACBETH Canvas, 30 inches high, 40 inches wide, signed at the left and dated, 1888. 21 WINTER MORNING, MONTCLAIR Canvas, 36 inches high, 47 inches wide, signed at the right and dated, 1882. Original study of this picture 13j£ x 20^ inches is now the property of William Macbeth. 22 WINTER EVENING Canvas, 32 inches high, 50 inches wide, signed at the right and dated, J 887. 23 LANDSCAPE, SUNSET BUTLER COLLECTION, ART INSTITUTE, CHICAGO Canvas, 22 yi inches high, 36 inches wide, signed at the right and dated, 1889. 24 MOONRISE COLLECTION OF A. H. ALKER Canvas, 30 inches high, 45 inches wide, signed at the right and dated, J888. 25 SEPTEMBER AFTERNOON EVANS COLLECTION, NATIONAL GALLERY, WASHINGTON Canvas, 36 -li inches high, 28 '4 inches wide, signed at the right and dated, 1887. *p . r'-'Wmf^^^ r - r,\;, ..^tv, . ¦ . • ' ..,-' .'¦"''"•_ yy '- ^- v " ^..^^-fejv-'-^pp nn g| ., ... ' -.:¦•'"". ¦*-' ri' ¦ " '' - '/.. jl '-3V- '¦ • ', . "**• ¦' i ¦ V A .-.:' ^i-'.^iSyfr ^ ¦&jl-..-^-0'#'v *» .¦^•^K ',_..-'.&% inches wide, signed at the left and dated, 1894. 49 INDIAN SUMMER COLLECTION OF NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS Canvas, 30 inches high, 45 inches -wide, signed at the right and dated, 1894. 50 THREATENING BUTLER COLLECTION, ART INSTITUTE, CHICAGO Canvas, 30 inches high, 45 inches wide, signed at the left and dated, 1891. THREE HUNDRED COPIES OF THIS BOOK ON DUTCH HANDMADE PAPER PRIVATELY PRINTED BY FREDERIC FAIRCHILD SHERMAN 3 9002 00938 7805