George Inness, Perugia, 1870, Oil on Canvas, Bequest of Ninah M. H. Cummer. C.O.195.1
The fifth of 13 children, George Inness was born on May 1, 1825. He was a landscape painter who drew his influences from the old masters, the Hudson River school, the Barbizon school, and the philosophy of Emanuel Swedenborg.
You can view his painting Perugia, in our Jacobsen gallery. Painted mid-career, on a trip to Italy. Toward the end of the 1860’s he became a member of the Raritan Bay Union utopian community, and began studying spiritualism. The most important philosophy to Inness at the time, was that of Emanuel Swedenborg, who claimed that all material objects were spiritually charged. From this point on, he focused on capturing the harmonious and expressive vision of each landscape.
