New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-01-21

! The honor Of having lifted our
school Of landscape painting to the
high plane on which it has success
fully challenged the modern masters
Of Europe must be divided among
! several men. Alexander Ii. Wyant,
Homer Martin, Winslow Homer, were
| all potent pioneers In this matter. and
some credit belongs also to John La
Fargo, whose Newport scene, the
Paradise Valley" painted In the six
ties. established landmark in its
field. What gives Inness his place
apart is the peculiar fullness with
which his work describes tho progress
OF an idea. Born in 1926 and dying in
| 1894, he embraced in his long career
the whole eamut Of landscape paint
ing. save for that French impression
| ism which was just coming into us
own as he was getting ready TO lay
down the brush. His pictures wildly
expose the evolution of a man OF
genius, proceeding step by step in the
heating out of a style. None OF MS
I
parently seuucntial "a record. Ana
none. We may add. is more intensely
personal in the quality Of his ehort'
| Jnness had no preliminary training
| that amounted TO anything. There IS
mention of a French medlocrlty, Regis
| Gienoux. In his biography, but 1T has
no significance. Nature appears 10
| have been his chief source of insplra-
/ ton from the beginning, reinforced by
/ travel in Italy and contact with the
works of the French naturalistic ana
I romanticist painters of 1880. But, OF
! course. he was subject TO the influences
around him, in the air, and at the out
set he naturally painted IN inc
/ meticulous fashion characteristic OF
! tho old Hudson River school. Inc
! AinsIie show well disrloses the habit
of his young manhood in the Early
| RecolIections." and the Land OF
| plenty" and, best Of all, in the
"Juniata River near harrisburg
That last picture, which dates from
| 1856. sums up the traits OF his form
alive period. It is thing of mlnutely
| observed detail. One can almost count
| the leaves on the trees. From the point
| Of view OF the matured lnness TINS
map-likc, Photographic transcript OF
50 many laboriously studied facts
! ouqht TO be as dead as Pharaoh. But
what n queer thing is genius! Inns
ricturc cannot die. A mysterious III
! is stirring il, the energizlng touch OF
an artist who could not be mercy
Photographic though he tried. ne
| yitalizing factor is not easily dehhaole
/ but il IS there. The excessive detail
which nominally should kill the whole
| is not, after all, incompatible win
| co-tein largcness Of feeling. All the
! iiro tbat Tnness was Just taking pains
With his subject there was at the back
| If his mind the generalizlng instinct
| that qoes to the making of great works
/ of art. ,r .,,...:..;,,,
tittIo book about him the statement IS
made that "he early began laborlous'
even servile, copying of the landscape
no saw with his own eyes, nor sufered
| niles or formula to guide his pencil
Tho second point here made is, II any
thing more important than the hrst,
| indica+inp as it does the individual
nsturo of Inness's realism. There IS
M Landscape painter Of his time, here
| or abroad, who possesses more OF tne
character Of the discoverer, the master
! Of research. And here comes IN one OF
the most exciting elements in his his,
torv. the resolution with which he used
| his studies AS only means to an ena'
Roughly speaking, one would say that
beside Rousseau, for example, Inness
knew nothing about tree and ground
! forms. These are given in the work
If the Frenchman a salience never OBJ
served in the American's-once the
carly period of the latter Is left be-
bind-and they have, often, an eX-
traordinary interest But when lnness
called the forms in Rousseau petty"
as. according to Mr.. Daingerfeld, he
frequently did, the criticism, II hardly
| fair TO Rousseau, has by indlrection