The Art of George Inness

George Inness (1825 – 1894) was an American painter, famous for his luminous and atmospheric landscapes. He helped define the Tonalist movement in the late 19th century. Tonalism was an artistic style that began in the 1880s. The name was formed based on a group of American painters who, painted landscape forms with one single color or an overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist.

(Inness, George. Sunset on a Meadow. date unknown. oil on canvas.)

Inness was the fifth of thirteen children born to a farmer and his wife in Newburgh, New York. Five years later his family moved to Newark, New Jersey. As a teenager, George studied under the painter, John Jesse Barker and then moved to New York City to work as a map engraver. He attended the National Academy of Design and began to study Asher B. Durand and Thomas Cole from the Hudson River School.

(Inness, George. The Storm. c. 1885. oil on canvas. Reynolda House Museum of American Art)

In 1851, a patron sponsored Inness to travel abroad, study and paint in Europe. During his trip to Paris, he discovered Camille Corot and the French Barbizon School. This group was focused on painting mood and shadow which influenced Inness to explore unique combinations of light and color, especially within specific color relationships. He published an article entitled, “Colours and Le Correspondences” where he described the spiritual significance of specific color combinations.

(Inness, George. Medfield Massachusetts. date unknown. oil on canvas. Private Collection.)

Inness used abstract shapes combined with soft edges to create a mystical experience for the viewer. As time went on his mystical view of nature became intensified. His artistic style is characterized by hazy atmospheres created by a distinctive tonal variety of neutral and saturated colors.

(Inness, George. Woodland Scene. date unknown. oil on canvas.)

Inness’ control over spatial relations, scale, drawing, and color combined with the idealistic handling of his subjects, allowed him to achieve a sense of relaxed and serene mystery, and his work is much appreciated here!

Enjoy! :)

References

• georgeinness.org

The Art of Andrew Wyeth

Andrew Newell Wyeth (1917 – 2009) was part of the Regionalist movement and is most well known for his painting of Christina’s World, one of the best-known American paintings of the mid 20th century. In 1963, Wyeth was the first painter to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award and at the age of 91 in 2007, he received the National Medal of Arts from George W. Bush.

(Wyeth, Andrew. Christina’s World. c. 1948. tempera on gessoed panel. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. ©)

Christina’s World depicts a young girl lying on the ground in an open field, looking up and crawling towards a grey house on the horizon. The girl was Andrew Wyeth’s neighbor, Christina Olson. She suffered from polio and had lost the use of her legs. Wyeth paints her painfully pulling herself up the hillside with her arms. The painting was purchased by the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1948 and its opening, brought in record-breaking attendance.

(Wyeth, Andrew. Dodges Ridge. c. 1947. tempera on gessoed panel. Smithsonian American Art Museum.)

Wyeth says, “She was limited physically but by no means spiritually. The challenge was to do justice to her extraordinary conquest of a life which most people would consider hopeless.”

(Wyeth, Andrew. The Master’s Bedroom. c. 1965. watercolor. Andrew Wyeth Private Collection.)

Andrew’s father, Newell Convers Wyeth, also known as N.C. was one of the most famous and highest-paid illustrators in the United States in the early 20th century. He illustrated popular books such as Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, The Last of the Mohicans, and Robin Hood. Although Andrew had already mastered watercolor when he was about twelve years old, N.C. chose to tutor him extensively in art.

(Wyeth, Andrew. Winter. c. 1946. tempera on board. North Carolina Museum of Art.)

In 1945, Andrew’s life was forever changed after the tragic death of his father and nephew, who were both killed in a car accident at a railway crossing near his home in Chadds Ford. Andrew later describes that everything after that was different as though “his eyes were opened”.

(Wyeth, Andrew. Groundhog Day. c. 1959. tempera on masonite. Philadelphia Museum of Art.)

Wyeth painted with egg tempera, which is created from an egg yolk mixed with pigment. It is a unique medium to be used in the 20th century as its popularity declined after the invention of oil paint. Once mixed it cannot be stored and it dries rapidly but, it does allow for great precision and Andrew used this to his advantage as he worked countless hours to paint individual strains of hair and individual blades of grass in Christina's World.

(Wyeth, Andrew. Braids. c. 1979. dry-brush watercolor. Private Collection.)

Wyeth’s paintings of open plains lacking vegetation, weathered buildings, and subjects of people in solitude seem to create a cold wintery feel and his work is much appreciated here! 

Enjoy! :) 

References

• Andrew Wyeth.com

The Art of Dennis Miller Bunker

Dennis Miller Bunker (1861 – 1890) was one of the earliest painters in America to adopt the new innovative impressionistic style in the late nineteenth century. His career promptly spiraled up to the top of the art world and then came to a crashing halt, as he died unexpectedly from meningitis at the young age of twenty-nine. At the time of his death, he was well respected and personal friends with other legendary artists such as John Singer Sargent and Thomas Wilmer Dewing.

(Bunker, Dennis Miller. Pink Rose. c. 1886. oil on canvas.)

Bunker was born along with three sisters in New York City to a modest family of Quaker heritage. His father was the secretary and treasurer of the Union Ferry Company, which provided transportation between Brooklyn and Manhattan. Not a lot is known about Bunker’s childhood until he began to formally study art.

(Bunker, Dennis Miller. The Pool, Medfield. c. 1889. oil on canvas.)
In 1876 at the age of 15, Bunker joined the newly founded Arts Students League of New York and enrolled in New York’s Academy of Design. He was a quick study and he began to mature as a painter within only a few years. His work proved to provide great clarity with mesmerizing strength.


(Bunker, Dennis Miller. Tree. c. 1884. oil on canvas.)

Around 1880, Boat pictures and landscapes were selling at the time and Bunker was keenly aware of the art marketplace. He began to focus on painting marine subjects, mostly boats at low tide and so he sold well. He soon moved into figures and landscapes, although when he couldn’t afford to pay for a model he painted flowers.

(Bunker, Dennis Miller. Jessica. c. 1890. oil on canvas.)

Bunker left New York to study abroad. He traveled to Paris and enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts which was a very prestigious art school. It had an extremely rigorous training program and it gave him the perfect credibility to become an art teacher at a young age when he returned to America.

(Bunker, Dennis Miller. Cottage. c. 1889. oil on canvas.)

At the youthful age of twenty-four, Bunker began teaching at the Cowles Art School in Boston. He taught cast drawing, artistic anatomy, and composition. That same year, he was given his first solo exhibit at Noyes and Blakeslee Gallery, which opened unimaginable opportunities for him.

(Bunker, Dennis Miller. Yellow Rose. c. 1887. oil on canvas. museum.)

Bunker’s work is highly memorable for its individuality and force. In its limited use of color, alluring modeling of form and aesthetic elegance, Bunker’s captivating and unusual paintings successfully make the perfect balance between abstraction and representation, and his work is much appreciated here!

Enjoy! :)

References

• Hirshler, E. Dennis Miller Bunker, An American Impressionist. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 1994.