: George Inness (1825-1894) is surely one of the most significant
figures in American art history, but he is often overlooked in
discussions about major American painters. Regarded by some as
the father of American landscape painting, even the finest of our
landscapists, he is nonetheless sometimes slighted by chroniclers
of our art. Robert Hughes, for example, in his massive and
generally admirable overview, American Visions: The Epic
History of Art in America, 1997, makes only one, passing
reference to Inness.
Because in recent years there have been few large exhibitions of
his work, opportunities to appreciate Inness anew and evaluate
his body of work have been few and far between. The splendid
show, "George Inness and the Visionary Landscape," on view at the
venerable National Academy of Design through December 28,
features some 40 paintings. It should go a long way toward
reclaiming Inness's central role in the development of Nineteenth
Century landscape painting in this country.
The exhibition is curated by Adrienne Baxter Bell, a PhD
candidate at Columbia University. When finished at the National
Academy, it travels to the San Diego Museum of Art, January
24-April 18. The accompanying catalog, written by Bell, is
scholarly and enlightening.
