George Inness (1824-1894),
November Montclair, 1893, oil on canvas, 30 x 45 1/16 inches. Brigham Young University Museum of Art, gift of Joseph Riggio, 1977.
This hazy autumnal November landscape was painted near George Inness’s home in Montclair, New Jersey. A lone figure wanders in a clearing, dwarfed amid the heaven-reaching trees. The artist’s style of loose brushstrokes and less defined forms reflect the influence of 18th-century Swedish theologian Emanuel Swedenborg. Inness embraced Swedenborg's belief that physical creation had a corresponding spiritual reality. This enveloping misty atmosphere blurs detail to suggest a metaphysical reality, which Inness considered to be the most significant realm. This work is currently on exhibition in Rend the Heavens: Intersections between the Human and Divine.