George Inness

(American, 1825-1894)

Viaduct at Laricha, Italy, c. 1872-74

oil on canvas

signed G. Inness (lower right)

18 x 26 inches.

The Collection of Philip and Judith Sieg, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania

Provenance:

The Artist's Estate

Sold: Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, New York, George Inness executor's sale, February 12 - 14, 1895, Lot 62 (dated to 1872)

George E. Tewksbury, acquired at the above sale

Sold: Fifth Avenue Auction Rooms, New York, Tewksbury and Purton sale, January 17 - 19, 1900, Lot 211

Senator Frederick S. Gibbs, New York, by 1902

Sold: American Art Association, New York, Gibbs sale, February 24 - 26, 1904, Lot 178

S. Chait, England, acquired at the above sale, until 1976

Davis & Long, New York

Acquired from the above by the present owners, 1977

Exhibited:

New York, American Fine Arts Society, Exhibition of the Paintings Left by the Late George Inness, December 27, 1894, no. 120

Literature:

Montezuma, "My Notebook: The Inness Paintings," The Art Amateur, vol. 32, no. 3, February 1895, p. 77

Brush and Pencil, vol. 9, no. 4, January 1902, p. 199, illus.

LeRoy Ireland and Robert G. McIntyre, The Works of George Inness; an illustrated catalogue, Austin, Texas, 1965, no. 570, pp. 137-138, illus.

Theodore E. Stebbins, The Lure of Italy: American Artists and the Italian Experience, 1760-1914, 1992, p. 314, n. 5

Michael Quick, George Inness: a catalogue raisonne, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2006, vol. 1, no. 413, p. 392, illus.

Lot note:

In the 1895 review of the George Inness retrospective at the Fine Arts Building in New York, Montezuma of The Art Amateur described Viaduct at Laricha, Italy as, “a view from a rocky height in shadow over a broad valley and distant hills, all in sunlight. The foreground rises boldly to the right, with trees and buildings; in front it is dotted with figures. It is rather thinly painted, but with decision. The tones are all grayish, but with no lack of color…He [Inness] had a lively imagination and was fond of experimenting…in which these qualities make themselves more or less apparent in efforts to render the glow of sunset, the mystery of moonlight, startling bursts of light through dark clouds, violent contrasts of color.”

This experimentation came as a result of the artistic and spiritual influences that shaped Inness early in his career. He came of age during the height of the Hudson River School, a group comprised of artists that viewed nature as a manifestation of the divine and strove to represent it as faithfully as possible. He also gained most of his knowledge of compositional structure by studying landscapes of the old masters, especially Claude Lorrain and Salvator Rosa, while working first at the engraving company Sherman & Smith and then at N. Currier (later Currier & Ives). However, Inness distinguished himself by applying the tenets of Swedenborgian religion to his art, which stresses the oneness of man, nature, and the universe. As a result, he became the leading American artist-philosopher of his generation.

In 1851, Inness followed the path of earlier American landscape painters and made his first trip to Italy. From this and a subsequent trip from 1870 to 1874, the artist produced many of his most memorable and renowned paintings. As noted by the nineteenth century art historian, Henry T. Tuckerman: “A visit to Italy is perhaps more of an epoch in the life of an American artist than in that of any other. The contrast between the new and old civilization, the diversity in modes of life, and especially the kindling associations which the enchantment of distance and long anticipation occasion, makes his sojourn there an episode in life.” (quoted in Theodore Stebbins, The Lure of Italy, American Artists and the Italian Experience, 1760-1914, New York, 1992, p. 19)

Executed during Inness’s second trip to Italy, the present work depicts the recently erected viaduct between Albano and Ariccia, looking toward Ariccia, southeast of Rome on the Alban Hills. Built between 1847 and 1854 on the order of Pope Pius IX and planned by the architect Ireneo Aleandri, at 312 meters long and 59 meters high, the structure is considered one of the most important engineering works of the nineteenth century. In contrast to his American predecessors, Inness was more willing to pursue Italian subjects less familiar to an educated public, such as the viaduct. Theodore Stebbins writes that the artist “was one of the first to go far afield, painting both traditional subjects such as Albano and Nebi, but also depicting anonymous Umbrian hillsides and bridges near Perugia.” (ibid., p. 57)

The dramatically foreshortened perspective of the viaduct as it cuts through the Alban Hills attests to the strong compositional geometry that Inness developed during his second Italian sojourn. At the same time, a luminosity emanates from the sky and bathes the surrounding landscape and the striking architectural structure. It is a scene that is both literal and imaginary, building on the traditions of early academic painting in America, but uniquely expressive, offering the viewer a gateway to the artist’s theological beliefs. Viaduct at Laricha, Italy reveals Inness’ individualistic, expressive style and commitment to the visual representation of Swedenborgian principles, which reinvented the landscape genre and ushered in a new era of American art.

Viaduct at Laricha, Italy, c. 1872-74