Evening star., 1925-04-30
THE NORTH WINDOW
BY LEILA MECHLIN.


commonly called the father of Amer
lean landscape painting. Certainly
Inness was the first of our American
painters to regard landscape painting
as interpretive. He belonged right
fully to the so-called Hudson River
but he had a larger concep-
tlon or art than his forerunners, and
he led the way to larger accomplish
ment. His boyhood was passed in
Newark, n. ]. Had his health been
good he would probably have entered
q mercantile career. AS it was not,
he was forced into comparative idle
ness and obliged to spend much of his
time out of doors. When he was IA
he began drawing and later had
some lessons from French artist,
who had practically no other claim
to fame. He was, in fact, chiefly self
taught, lnstinctively a painter. In l847
ne went to Europe, stopped in London
and passed Is months in Rome. From
there he returned home, but only to
go back to Europe shortly On this
second trip he stayed in Paris and it
was then, undoubtedly, that he came
under the influence of the Barbizon
painters. This influence was mingled
with the classical, and in time domi-
mated by the painters own Individual
ity. One of the pictures of Inness'
early classical period is to be found
in the Phillips Memorial Gallery, a
beautiful work, vieing with the paint
ings of Wilson and Constable for
beauty of composition, loyeliness of
color and skill Of execution.
= 4 Z K
Regarding his early work Elliott
ID Daingerfield, in his excellent book on
George Inness, says. THE effort and
intent were for objective realization.
He knew, and every days work re-
veals it, that in this way only could
he lay the foundations of knowledge
20 deep that they would be perma-
nent; build them so high that there
could. afterwards, be no stumbling
blocks. To rid himself of the neces-
sity of objective thought by COM
manding it, to make the fingers the
servants of the mind, the mind an
inexhauStible storehouse-thiSw was his
struggle. No one but the painter him
self, perhaps, knows the enormous
amount of labor involved in such a
conquest. None but a sensitive artist
can understand the WEAKNESS of such
struggle-the true nature of a pris-
oner, unable to give vent to an emo
tion-yet it is through this very trial
that great work grows. The thing in
art which is done with the easy flip
pancy of egotiStic conviction is seldom
OF permanent value, and skill alone
will never lead one into the we'll
springs of beauty"
Inness himself said. so the late
Samuel Isham tells US in his History
of American Painting: THE pur-
pose Of the painter is simply to re-
produce in other minds the impress
sion which a scene has made upon
M A n~l- IzF n
to the intellect. 1t does not appeal
TO the moral sense. Its aim is not
to instruct, not to edify, but to awak-
en- an emotion. 1t must
be single emotion if the work has
unity, as every such work should
have. and the true beauty of the work
consists in the beauty of the senti
ment or emotion which it inspires.
It's real greatness consists in the
quality and force of this emotion.
Details in the picture must be elab-
GRATED only enough fully to reproduce
the impression which the artist wish
es to reproduce. When more than
this is done, the impression is weak
ened or lost, and we see simply an
array Of external things which may
be very Cleverly painted. and may
look very real, but which do not make
an artistic painting. The effort and
difficulty of an artist are to combine
the two. namely, to make the thought
clear and to preserve the unity Of
impression. Meissonier always makes
his thought clear. he is most pains
taking in his details; Corot. on the
in objective force but Co.
rot's art is higher than Meissonier'S +"
Inness' art was by no means acct
dental. He was, as has been said be-
fore, hard student, and he built his
pictures upon well grounded theories
For instance. this was the law of
composition he laid down for himself
and followed relentlessly: From the
horizon mot the skyline) to the near
est point-the bottom OF the canvas
there shall be three great planes; the
first two shall be foreground, the
third or last shall contain all the dis
tance. The subject matter must not
be within the first plane. but behind
ii, and whatever reaches above the
horizon line. by its size and proper
tion becomes subject matter-there-
fore trees that find their plane within
the first great section are too near,
and perforce must be cut off at the
base to force them away. So, too. a
figure, wherever placed, must not
reach above the horizon. else it be-
comes subject matter and therefore
a figure picture"
x x
The quality of courage in Inness'
work was very dominant. He was
absolutely fearless. and however near
finished his canvases were, he would
face any risk rather than leave them,
as he considered, incomplete or un-
worthy. "The work must be finished
as whole, not as a part: it must be
as complete as a portrait by Rem
brandt" he would say, and if at the
last moment he discovered a weak
ness or hitch or falsely adjusted prin-
ciple, he would heroically recast the
whole-to re-emerge, after great la
Dor, the conQueror. But sometimes
the result was not successful. 1t is
said that InnesS painted out more
pictures than many men ever
painted in. Interesting stories are
told of his pictures which disappeared
one beneath another, because they did
not exactly suit him, or because he
was in need of a canvas on which to
portray a theme at that time upper
most in his mind.
A story is told Of a gentleman who
purchased a painting by Inness at an
exhibition of the National Academy
Of Design-a delicate Spring land
scape with cows grazing on the broad
The purchaser later
brought 1t to Mr.. Inness with the re-
quest that he sharpen the drawing of
the cows. Elliott Daingerfield, relat-
ing this incident. says: II saw the
picture in his studio in the morning
and admired 1t greatly. About
o'clock that afternoon he knocked