Homeward
George Inness
American Art
This picture was never completed, but the composition provides a fascinating glimpse of George Inness’s rapid working process during the initial stages of painting. The background was first tinted overall with a gray-brown midtone. This was followed by a linear charcoal underdrawing, especially visible in the tree branches. Inness’s expressive brushwork further defines the image with both wet and dry dragged paint, bold color, rubbing, and even the apparent use of the brush handle to define the ox’s foreleg. This looser, more freely brushed style signals the direction of his mature work under the inspiration of French Barbizon art, which celebrated unidealized representations of nature.
MEDIUM
Oil on canvas
DATES
1881
DIMENSIONS
20 1/4 x 30 1/8 in. (51.5 x 76.5 cm)
frame: 33 3/4 x 43 5/8 x 5 3/4 in. (85.7 x 110.8 x 14.6 cm) (show scale)
SIGNATURE
Signed lower right: "G. Inness 1881"
COLLECTIONS
American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
32.827
CREDIT LINE
Gift of the executors of the Estate of Colonel Michael Friedsam
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
George Inness (American, 1825â1894). Homeward, 1881. Oil on canvas, 20 1/4 x 30 1/8 in. (51.5 x 76.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the executors of the Estate of Colonel Michael Friedsam, 32.827 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 32.827_SL1.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 32.827_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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