September Afternoon

Painted in 1887, September Afternoon is a work by George Inness, now in the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum, that reflects the artistic concerns of the late 19th century — an era of fundamental transformation in both the methods and purposes of European and American painting. George Inness bridges the Hudson River School's topographical precision with the atmospheric spiritualism that characterized his mature work. Deeply influenced by the Barbizon School during his European visits and by Swedenborg's philosophy of divine correspondence, he sought in landscape painting a means of conveying spiritual states and the soul's relationship to nature.

Inness built his mature landscapes through soft, blended transitions of tone with minimal hard edges, creating an enveloping atmospheric haze. His palette is warm and intimate — deep greens, golden ochres, soft mauves at dusk — applied with assured, loosely blended strokes.