Sunset over the Sea
George Inness
American Art
On View:
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.
MEDIUM
Oil on panel
DATES
1887
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) (show scale)
SIGNATURE
Signed lower left: "G. Inness 1887"
COLLECTIONS
American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
34.488
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, 1825–1894). Sunset over the Sea, 1887. Oil on panel, 22 1/16 × 36 1/8 in. (56 × 91.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the executors of the Estate of Colonel Michael Friedsam, 34.488 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 34.488_SL1.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 34.488_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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