George Inness was born on May 1st, 1825 on a farm near Newburgh, New York. His father was a successful grocer, who recognized his son’s artistic talent, yet tried to lead him away from the life of an artist, giving him his own grocery store to run at the age of fourteen. Nevertheless, Inness forged ahead in his passion for art, and in 1841 Inness became an apprentice in a map engraving firm. In 1843, he received his only formal art training in a primarily self-taught career: he studied in Brooklyn with Régis François Gignoux, a French landscape artist who was working stateside. It was also this year that he exhibited for the first time at the National Academy of Design, New York. The following year he exhibited at the American Art Union in New York. In 1850 he embarked on the first of two trips to Europe. Both times he visited Italy and France. These trips had profound influence upon his career. Up until then he had only been exposed to the artists of the Hudson River School, but during his travels he was exposed to the works of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Théodore Rousseau. He found himself identifying more closely with the French Barbizon School style of landscape. In between the two voyages to Europe, Inness was elected as an associate member of the National Academy of Design. During the years of 1855 and 1864 Inness moved several times around the New England area, but it was not until 1864 when he moved to Medfield, Massachusetts that he discovered the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg, who promoted the belief in the unity between God, Nature and Mankind. Swedenborg’s teachings combined with the Barbizon School style of painting are what most heavily influenced Inness’s mature style. He actively distanced himself from the Hudson River School painters who would show Divine presence in their paintings, however they displayed it with elements of the Sublime, showing that the power of Mother Nature is much greater than that of Mankind’s. Inness preferred to display Divine presence through rendering more “civilized” or “tamed” landscapes, that showed the interdependency of Nature and Mankind. He did not often include figures, but when he did they were never portraits, and they were added solely to serve the purpose of displaying the integral role Man plays within nature. Inness’s landscapes were also unique due to his elaborate canvas preparation process. First he would stain the canvas, then draw on it with charcoal and umber, finishing it by painting with opaque paints with glazes layered on top. The final product produced a great contrast between light and dark. Between the years of 1867 and his death in 1894, Inness exhibited around the world, and continued to travel. He was elected a full member of the National Academy of Design in 1868. He showed twice at the Universal Exposition, Paris in 1867 and 1889, and he exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1872, as well as in Munich, Germany in 1892 where he received a medal. George Inness died just after arriving in Scotland on August 3rd, 1894. His funeral was held at the National Academy of Design in New York on August 23rd, 1894. His works are extremely well represented in collections across the country, most notably at the National Gallery of Art, D.C., The Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Phillips Collection, D.C., Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, and The Art Institute Chicago.