September Noon

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September Noon

Artist George Inness (American, 1825-1894)

Date1892

DimensionsFrame: 39 1/4 × 54 1/4 × 2 7/8 in. (99.7 × 137.8 × 7.3 cm)
Canvas: 30 1/4 × 45 3/8 in. (76.8 × 115.3 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of an anonymous donor

Object number

1986.107

Not on View

Label TextThe purpose of the painter is simply to reproduce in other minds the impression which a scene has made upon him. Instead of awe-inspiring vistas of the vast American landscape, George Inness chose to depict more modest views, relying on his memory rather than sketching directly from nature. Inness used glowing color, broad brushwork, and dreamlike “soft focus” to indicate the spiritual aspects of nature. He often included a solitary figure, face obscured, to reinforce the focus on the introspective qualities of the landscape. Inspired by the philosophy of nature-based spiritualism that also influenced writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, Inness created unity in his highly personal paintings by combining, as he described it, “both the subjective sentiment—the poetry of nature—with the objective fact.”Published ReferencesDaingerfield, Elliott, Fifty Paintings by George Inness, New York, 1913, pl. 35.

Ireland, LeRoy, The Works of George Inness, Austin and London, 1965, no. 1438, repr.

Gustafson, Eleanor H., "Museum Accessions," Antiques, vol. 131, no. 5, May 1987, p. 981.

"La chronique des arts," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 111, no. 1430, March 1988, p. 67.

Quick, Michael, George Inness: A Catalogue Raisonné, New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press, 2007, no. 1065, vol. II, pp. 271, 273, 369-370, fig. 316, p. 273, repr. p. 370.

Exhibition HistoryCleveland Museum of Art, Inaugural Exhibition, 1916, no. 27.

Dudley Peter Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH. 2000-01.