George Inness and the science of landscape
By: Rachael Ziady DeLue.
Contributors: Inness, George, 1825-1894.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Chicago
Language: eng
Number of pages: 317
Subjects: Inness, George, -- 1825-1894 -- Criticism and interpretation; Landscape painting, American -- 19th century; Spirituality in art
Other titles: Science of landscape
Description: "George Inness (1825-94), long considered one of America's greatest landscape painters, has yet to receive his full due from scholars and critics. A complicated artist and thinker, Inness painted beautiful, evocative views of the American countryside. Less interested in representing the details of a particular place than in rendering the "subjective mystery of nature," Inness believed that capturing the spirit or essence of a natural scene could point to a reality beyond the physical or, as Inness put it, "the reality of the unseen."" "Throughout his career, Inness struggled to make visible what was invisible to the human eye by combining a deep interest in nineteenth-century scientific inquiry - including optics, psychology, physiology, and mathematics - with an idiosyncratic brand of mysticism. Rachael Ziady DeLue's George Inness and the Science of Landscape - the first in-depth examination of Inness's career to appear in several decades - demonstrates how the artistic, spiritual, and scientific aspects of Inness's art found expression in his masterful landscapes. In fact, Inness's practice was not merely shaped by his preoccupation with the nature and limits of human perception; he conceived of his labor as a science in its own right." "This illustrated work reveals Inness as profoundly invested in the science and philosophy of his time and illuminates the complex manner in which the fields of art and science intersected in nineteenth-century America. Long-awaited, this reevaluation of one of the major figures of nineteenth-century American art will prove to be a seminal text in the fields of art history and American studies."--BOOK JACKET
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: George Inness, metaphysician; title: The struggle of vision; title: Painting from memory; title: Painting unity; title: Painting the past; title: The plight of allegory; title: The mathematics of psychology; title: "We must work our way to paradise."