Spring Blossoms, Montclair, New Jersey
ca. 1891
Medium
Oil and crayon or charcoal on canvas
Dimensions
29 x 45 1/4 in. (73.7 x 114.9 cm)
Classification
Painting
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of George A. Hearn, in memory of Arthur Hoppock Hearn, 1911
Accession Number
11.116.4
Tags
Art Historical Context
George Inness's *Spring Blossoms,clair, New Jersey*ca. 1891) captures the tender renewal of spring in the artist's adopted hometown, just outside New York City. A leading figure in American landscape painting,ness transitioned from the detailed realism of the Hudson River School the atmospheric Tonalism of his later career. Here, blooming trees and soft, hazy vistas evoke a spiritual harmony between nature and the divine, his interest in Swedenborgian philosophy, which emphasized mystical unity in the natural world. The mixed medium of oil with crayon or charcoal on canvas—measuring 29 x 45¼ ...
About the Artist
George Inness · 1825–1894
George Inness (1825–1894) was an American landscape painter regarded as one of the most important figures in nineteenth-century American art, bridging the Hudson River School tradition and a more personal, spiritually-inflected vision of nature. Born near Newburgh, New York, he received limited formal training, studying briefly with Régis François Gignoux, but was largely self-taught, developing h...