George Inness and the Visionary Landscape

This eloquent examination of Innes’s most important paintings illuminates the artist’s philosophical and religious preoccupations. It provides an overview of his life and situates Inness within the contexts of key issues in American history, such as the Hudson River School, Transcendentalism, Swedenborgianism, and the work of William James. It explains for the first time how Inness treated landscape painting as a form of philosophical inquiry that could communicate his holistic belief in the unity of nature and spirit. AUTHOR: Adrienne Baxter Bell, Ph.D., is the author of George Inness: Painting Philosophy and the editor of George Inness: Writings and Reflections on Art and Philosophy (Braziller, 2006). She served as Guest Curator for the exhibition George Inness and the Visionary Landscape (2003-04) and is an Associate Professor of Art History at Marymount Manhattan College, New York. SELLING POINTS: . Lavishly illustrated throughout . Grounds important artist within historical and philosophical concepts . Greatly expands previous scholarship . Links painter’s spiritual beliefs to his art practices and compares this symbiotic relationship to other major artists of 20th century 40 colour and 19 black & white plates