George Inness and the Science of Landscape

Rachael Ziady DeLue

ISBN 10: 0226142299 / ISBN 13: 9780226142296

Published by University of Chicago Press, 2004

About this Item

Hardback with unclipped dust jacket, which has a little bit of wear at top. Clean and unmarked inside.

Seller Inventory # ab47

Bibliographic Details

• Title: George Inness and the Science of Landscape
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226142299
• ISBN 13: 9780226142296
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Dimensions: 2.54W x 21.59H x 25.4D centimeters 2.54 centimeters width by 21.59 centimeters height by 25.4 centimeters depth
• Weight: 1315 grams
• Seller catalogs:
  • art

About this title

Synopsis

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 stunningly 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 lavishly 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.

About the Author

Rachael Z. DeLue is associate professor of art history at Princeton University.