George Inness:  Picture Perfect

- by Bruce E. McKinney

The Dispersal of George Inness' paintings

In the Executor’s Sale catalogue of 187 paintings 25 are identified as in Milton, near Milton or by my calculations within a day of Milton.  Of these paintings 7 are dated ranging from 1865 to 1889.  The style of his later paintings is more abstract, tonalist specifically, where the painter’s emphasis is on atmosphere and shadow.  This work was probably painted in the 1880s, the outcome of a day trip, the place possibly the clove in Greene County, looking south along the ridge line toward the Catskill Mountain house, or possibly looking out and down the original carriageway from the Lake at Mohonk into the Wallkill River valley toward Gardiner in Ulster County.  As to the size this would fit among his smallest paintings.

The work is signed G. Inness and whether it’s because I want to believe it or that the facts support it I have it on my wall and count myself fortunate.

The following is a list of paintings, in the 1898 dispersal, identified as Milton, near Milton or mentioning another nearby place-name within a day’s travel by boat or buggy.

Marlborough 12 x 15 undated

Milton 16.5 x 17.5 undated

Milton-on-the-Hudson 16 x 24 undated

Roundout Valley 9.25 x 14

Milton 15 x 18

In the Adirondacks 16.75 x 22.25

Milton-on-the-Hudson 20 x 30

Catskills N.Y. 9.25 x 13.375

Shawangunk Mountains 14 x 21

Cornwall N. Y. 9.25 x 13.25

Milton-on-the Hudson 15 x 25.75 1882 $200 at his auction dispersal in 1898

Wallkill Valley 8.5 x 24

Sunset time 19 x 24

Milton-on-the Hudson 27 x 22 $200 at his auction dispersal in 1898

Milton-on-the-Hudson sketch 20 x 23.5 1882

Shawangunk Mountains 11.75 x 18.75 1881

In the Catskills 8 x 11.75

In the Catskills 9 x 14

Milton-on-the-Hudson 12 x 18

Milton-on-the-Hudson 16 x 24 1880

Milton-on-the-Hudson 30 x 35 1889

Leeds, Catskills sketch 9.25 x 13 1865

Milton-on-the-Hudson 9.25 x 13 1876

Near Milton 5.5 x 8.7/8

Marlborough on Hudson 13.5 x 18.25 1880

 

I’m convinced but I’m also in love.

New York Times archive containing a story on the Innes Auction at the Fifth Avenue Art Galleries.