Near the Village, October 1892

George Inness painted "Near the Village, October" using oil paints. The application is quite loose, with strokes of color that blend softly together. Inness was deeply engaged with the Barbizon school of painting, and sought to portray the landscape in a way that evoked feeling and mood, rather than specific detail. You can see how the material qualities of oil paint – its viscosity, its capacity for blending, its luminosity – serve this purpose. When looking at the history of landscape painting, it is crucial to remember the social dimensions of the scene. Nature is never just nature, in other words. The very idea of escaping to a rural landscape, which was becoming popular in the late 19th century, was intimately tied to the growth of cities, and the emergence of industrial capitalism. With its painterly surface and careful composition, "Near the Village, October" is both a celebration of the American landscape, and an expression of complex feelings about the transformations then underway.