Sunset over the Sea

Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
Trained in the realistic conventions of the Hudson River school, George Inness slowly evolved a highly expressive and original manner after the Civil War and turned to suggestive, nontopographical landscapes. In late works like Sunset over the Sea, Inness achieved a coloristic and expressive unity that stepped further away from objective reality. The image is divided into two registers, sea and sky, rendered in hazes of pigment that mimic the shifting state of air, water, and light in nature. Sea birds riding the currents of air above the waves in the foreground, which is bathed in an eerie light, undoubtedly bore a spiritual message for the artist, an ardent follower of the Swedenborgian faith.
Caption
George Inness American, 1825–1894. Sunset over the Sea, 1887. Oil on panel, 22 1/16 × 36 1/8 in. (56 × 91.8 cm) frame: 36 × 49 3/4 × 3 1/2 in. (91.4 × 126.4 × 8.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the executors of the Estate of Colonel Michael Friedsam, 34.488. No known copyright restrictions (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 34.488_SL1.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Sunset over the Sea
Date
1887
Medium
Oil on panel
Classification
Dimensions
22 1/16 × 36 1/8 in. (56 × 91.8 cm) frame: 36 × 49 3/4 × 3 1/2 in. (91.4 × 126.4 × 8.9 cm)
Signatures
Signed lower left: "G. Inness 1887"
Credit Line
Gift of the executors of the Estate of Colonel Michael Friedsam
Accession Number
34.488
Rights
No known copyright restrictions
This work may be in the public domain in the United States. Works created by United States and non-United States nationals published prior to 1923 are in the public domain, subject to the terms of any applicable treaty or agreement. You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this work. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties, such as artists or artists' heirs holding the rights to the work. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. The Brooklyn Museum makes no representations or warranties with respect to the application or terms of any international agreement governing copyright protection in the United States for works created by foreign nationals. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
Have information?
Have information about an artwork? Contact us at