New Britain herald., 1917-01-23
INNESS' WORK AT
 MUSEUM INSTITUTE
Landscape by Famous Artist in
 Local Galleries

All persons visiting the Talcott Art room of the Museum of Natural History and Art of the New Britain Institute who have been to the larger art galleries speak in delight of the lnness painting upon it's walls. Many who have seen a number of Inness' works have declared tho painting at the Institute Museum to be on a par with any, and some have stated they like the one here better than any of the others they have seen. Be that as 1t may, the Inness painting at the local museum is a beautiful example of the noted masters work and New Britain people can well take pride in it's possession.
 Interest in George Inness' art has been considerably stimulated of late by several substantial sales and two important exhibitions. In the New 1ork American of yesterday appears quite a lengthy article relating to lnness and many of his paintings. It IS by Charles H. Caffin and in part he writes:
 "The landscapes of the late George Inness are at present enjoying a boom In the language of the Street his stock is away up.' The record price had been SPA 500, paid at the sale of the Borden col lection by the American Art Asso- citation. Last December, however Mr. Robert Handley purchased 'Tenafy l Oaks from the Macbeth Galleries for $30,0o0. r About week ago the Hol- 1 land Galleries sold for $40,OOO the fine example from the Yerkes collection Sunset Golden Glow And now comes the announce ! ment that s45,000 has been paid by MT. Handley for Autumn woodlands,' from the Ainsie Galleries. As the news report puts it. These prices es- tabltsh Inness in the class of the Bar bizon painters as to comm mercial value.' Tt would be easy to be cynical about all this: to suggest that In- ness has arrived'--in the character istically American sense-commer- cially: that now that the dealers are playing battledore and shuttlecock with up-n-the-air prices his fame is ! established.
 But for the credit of his country JllGH, lHIeSS lame was eSLdDIlSneQ De- , fore his death, in 1894, and has been growing steadily ever since in the hearts and minds of an ever-increas- ing people,
 "His art on its own merits has long since taken a recognized position in the art Of America, one that placed him in rank with the great artists of Europe. To this fact I bore my humble testimony fourteen years ago. Tn the record of American Art I wrote three names stand out distinct ly as those of innovators: Whistler La Fargo and George Inness. While Whistlers influence has been felt throughout the whole art world. and La Farge (to quote from the report of the international jury of the eXhibi- ton of 1SS9), has created in all it's de- tails an art unknown before Gin the way of window glass decoration), Inness was pathfinder only within the domain of American art, and was led by instinct into ways already trodden by the great men of other countries
 "'But this does not make him less an innovator. Nor does the fact that he was certainly influenced by the men of 1S3O,' when he came to know their works. The point is, that throughout his life has evolution was from within"
 1T was alluding, it need hardly be said, to Inness' leadership in lifting American landscape art from the meticulously detailed work or the Hudson River school into line With the large, simple and intense synthesis of the Barbizon, and also in changing ! the motive of landscape painting from I nf the 1nDGar- ances of & scene into an expression of the artists own reaction to the beauty of nature.
 "That reaction, in Inness' own case, | represented an evolution from love Of 1 nature for its own sake to an increas- ing consciousness of it's appeal to the spiritual imagination. It corres-
 bonded with his growing interest Tn ! Swedenborgianism
 | "His love of nature made the dis
 ciplinc of thorough study delight.
 He mastered the forms of nature. Accordingly, in his later Work ne 1 retained the sense of form, even when
 he eliminated the positive delneatlon 1 of it. because he desired to win the
 eve away from preoccupatlon With
 the appearances of the scene to con-
 sciousness of what he felt to be It's | spiritual content.
 "At tho present moment students
 of lnncss nave two remarkable op- 1 pOrtunitieS of. as the case may be,
 forming or corruborating an apprecia-
 ton of his art. One is an exhibition
 at the Reinhardt Galleries of twenty | three examples, purchased from his
 son, George Inness, Jr.,; the other a
 display at the Ainslie Galleries which
 have been consistently identified with ! his york;