Oil and gouache on paper. Featuring a modernist landscape scene of sunset. Signed G. Inness on the lower right corner. Inscribed GI 12 and stamped Charles Egan NY, verso. Attributed to George Inness (1825-1894, American). 19.5 x 27 cm (8 x 10.75 inches). PROVENANCE: Southern Ontario estate

George Inness (1825-1894) was an American artist whose landscapes melded the paint handling of the French Barbizon School with subject matter specific to the changing American countryside. With his hallmark work The Lackawanna Valley (1856), the artist provided a glimpse of the beginnings of the railroad, in soft brushstrokes, rich hues, providing an ambivalent view of the beauty and destruction inherent in scene. “The purpose of the painter is simply to reproduce in other minds the impression which a scene has made upon him,” he once mused. “A work of art does not appeal to the intellect. It does not appeal to the moral sense. Its aim is to instruct, not to edify, but to awaken an emotion.” Born on May 1, 1825 in Newburgh, NY, Inness learned his trade through a series of apprenticeships and artistic endeavors in his youth, including working in New York as a map engraver and briefly studying under the French painter Régis François Gignoux. During his travels to Rome and Paris in the early 1850s, Inness absorbed the techniques of Claude Lorrain and Théodore Rousseau. Returning to the United States, Inness began painting rural scenes with a renewed intensity and spiritual dimension lacking in his early works. The artist died on August 3, 1894 in Bridge of Allan, United Kingdom. Today, his works are included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, among others.

All lots that do not carry established documented provenance nor any past record of auction history record are described in the catalog as attributed .

All authorship of items in this catalog are described according to the following terms:

Signed [Artist Name] : In cases in which the signature is legible in the lot, this work is described as-is with no attributions given.

By [Artist Name] : The work is by the artist.

Attributed to [Artist Name] : The work may be ascribed to the artist on the basis of style, but there may be some question as to actual authorship.

In the manner of [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but was designed deliberately to emulate the style of the artist.

After [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but is a deliberate copy of a known work by the artist.

Circle of [Artist Name] : A work of the period of the artist showing his influence, closely associated with the artist but not necessarily his pupil.

Follower of [Artist Name]: A work by a pupil or a follower of the artist (not necessarily a pupil).

American, 19th century : This work was executed by an unknown hand, and can only be identified by origin (i.e., region, period).