Untitled (Scene at Etretat)

George Inness is considered one of the most prominent American landscape painters of the nineteenth century. Inness was well-versed in the traditions of landscape painting in Europe and America, and was deeply influenced by the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, an eighteenth-century theologian who proposed a philosophy in which earthly and heavenly realms are united. Originally titled The Shawangunk Mountains, New York, scholars believed Inness created this painting during a trip to Europe in the early 1870s. Other works from this period are thought to depict Étretat, in Normandy, France, and the work has been retitled to reflect this. Scholars now believe that this body of work might actually be Porto d’Anzio, Italy. Despite these potential varied locations, the scene embodies the dramatic effects of weather and atmosphere. According to Inness’ son, in his later years Inness rarely painted directly from nature, “He would study for days, then with the most dynamic energy, creating the composition from his own brain, but with so thorough an underlying knowledge of nature that the key-note of his landscape was always truth and sincerity and absolute fidelity to nature.”