Haunted Visions by Colbert Charles;

Author:Colbert, Charles;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Figure 51. George Inness, Sundown. 1894, oil on canvas, 30 5/8 x 45 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC/Art Resource NY.

When Inness rented a house in Montclair in 1878, he entered a Georgian environment of small farms in proximity to a city before the economist published his theories. His purchase of the Dodge estate in 1884 reflected his concurrence with these theories. The pear orchard located on the property entitled him to claim yeoman status: on his acres, God's bounteous gift would not go fallow. Inness asserted he could plant an easel in his grove and find inspiration for scores of works. His lands, then, not only contributed to the nation's material economy, but also boosted its corresponding cultural GNP.37

The Garden State was a hotbed of single tax agitation, with Montclair hosting a club dedicated to George's crusade during the very years the artist was creating his most profound compositions. This convergence of personal and political developments sustained and even amplified the earlier Spiritualist and Swedenborgian strains in his work.38 Those Swedenborgian correspondences that otherwise prove so elusive, for example, are now given (social) substance by reference to an emerging ideal of equality and cooperation fostered by Georgian principles; the entire setting usurps the role of isolated features (although these might also be consulted) in functioning as a correspondence with heaven.

We have no way of calculating the precise contribution each of these beliefs made to any particular work, and perhaps the best approach is to remain alert for clues relating to all three while acknowledging that such inspiration would not have been uniformly constant (or, in some cases, even present at all). These considerations provide a framework for an examination of Home at Montclair, a deeply personal composition whose expressive immediacy makes it a compelling example of Inness's “signature style” (Figure 52).39 Nestled in a setting of wintry beauty, its house evokes feelings of domestic felicity. A rustic fence of tree trunks and branches divides the composition with an emphatic diagonal symptomatic of the artist's concern to demarcate terrestrial space clearly. It also foregrounds the issue of property, in effect declaring, “behind this barrier stands the domain of Inness.” The estate may not be vast, but it is well tended and answers the physical and spiritual needs of its owners.

Spiritualist influences appear in the dynamic brushwork that synthe-sizes feeling and paint. Diverse strokes and scratches, especially evident in the left corner, contribute to a “scraffito” characteristic of the “signature style.”40 This feature returns us to the qualities Inness identifies as characteristic of the “civilized landscape.” The latter's significance derives not only from the acts, labors, and efforts of man, he remarks, but also from his “suffering, want, anxiety, necessity, [and] love.” Allowing for some ambiguity in this statement, it is nevertheless possible to read it as involving psychometry; these emotions—not physical things—leave the imprint of humanity on the environment, a mark readable by those attuned to its energy. The “civilized landscape,” then, is more significant than its untamed opposite

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