The Gleaners, George Inness

Archive Label 2003:
Inness embraced the philosophy that God and nature were one and that there was a connection between external and spiritual beauty. His interpretation of nature changed in the 1860s, when he began to incorporate feelings in his work. In The Gleaners, painted near the end of his life, he depends on emotions to enhance the aesthetic experience for the viewer.

By the time The Gleaners was painted, Inness’s brushwork had become significantly looser than in his earlier works. The identities and actions of the figures are more difficult to define than the rich tonality of the brown-green mist in the fields and the shimmering-gold sunset glimpsed through the trees.