Descripción
Old painting George Inness” gondolier”
Old painting on wood signed George Inness. Marina Gondolier.
measurements only work, 35cm (14”) x 26.5cm (10.5”)
It has its original wooden frame.
The paint needs cleaning.
GEORGE INNESS, JR.
1854 – 1926
Painter/Philanthropist
Tarpon Springs
George Inness, Jr. was one of America’s foremost figure and landscape painters and a
respected philanthropist. He is recognized as a great Florida artist for his depiction of the
state’s unspoiled landscapes full of the flora and fauna of his time.
Born in Paris, France, on January 5, 1854 to the famous 19th century American painter George
Inness, George Inness, Jr. was raised to be an artist. He grew up in the United States but
He accompanied his father on extensive painting excursions in France and Italy. As a result, I spent
much of his youth in European art circles, he studied with French artist Léon Bonnat and was
influenced by the Barbizon School of landscape painting. Returning to the US, I have developed a
career as a magazine illustrator and painter of bucolic and hunting scenes.
During the Gilded Age, he became a man of great wealth with his 1879 marriage to Julia
Goodrich Smith, heiress to one of America’s largest publishing empires, the Century Publishing
Company. He no longer had to worry financially about advancing his artistic career.
Upon his father’s death in 1894, 41-year-old Inness, Jr. returned to France in search of a style
different from his father and began a formal study of painting at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. His
education in the French Academy included the study of classical art, formal design, color theory,
anatomy, and drawing, followed by examinations, letters of recommendation and apprentice
training. Inness, Jr. excelled in this environment and gained confidence and recognition.
Inness, Jr. opened a studio in Paris, created paintings in the academic style and sought
membership in the French Academy. He participated in the annual Salon de Paris, won awards
from the Societé des Artistes Français, and in 1902 he was named an Officer in the Académie des
Beaux Arts, a rare distinction for an American.
Two of his award-winning academic paintings, The Centurion (1897), and The Last Shadow of
the Cross (1898), were large pictorial scenes painted with smooth brushstrokes and attention to
detail, including realistic replications of Biblical landscapes. Both paintings were exhibited in the
Louvre Museum in Paris for over a quarter century. These paintings are now in the collection of
the Unitarian Universalist Church in Tarpon Springs.
With Inness, Jr.’s return to the United States came recognition in American art circles. His
European contacts furthered prestige in the publishing business. His formal education at the
Academy influenced his illustration work and provided a springboard to evolve his passion for
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spiritual landscapes of soft-edged, mid-range tonality. These paintings were a departure from
the brooding, dark atmospheric landscapes associated with his father and thus represented his
own aesthetic voice. A signature green color used by Inness, Jr. in his late work, often referred to
to as “Inness green,” evoked rebirth and the spiritual presence in nature.