Day Eighteen: A Pastoral Landscape by George Inness Jr
Hello and Welcome to day 18 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Painted after - A Pastoral Landscape by George Inness Jr , Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel
Today's study is of 'A Pastoral Landscape' by George Inness Jr.
I spoke in a bit about George Inness Junior in the video narration and read a short biography of him as well. George Inness Junior was active as a painter from 1875 to 1925. He worked in the same tonal style as his father, George Inness and he was one of the last torchbearers for the movement.
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I'm going to cover some of the various aspects of Tonalism as I see them. There is an excellent
by David Cleveland where in he outlines his ideas what constitutes Tonalism, for the most part I'd say he's right on the money.
The primary aspects of a painting that would define it as being tonal in nature are as follows:
Tonalist paintings feature intimate views that are contained in one scan of the landscape as opposed to broad vistas.
Colors are tonally unified by means of a color ground/surface and, or application of oil paint glazes.
Landscapes are generally devoid of figures, or if there are figures they are subsumed by the larger scene.
Tonalist paintings are generally accomplished in the studio not painted directly outdoors.
Detail is generally supplanted by a greater attention to diffused forms.
Tonalist paintings often portray early morning, late afternoon or evening scenes.
Tonalist paintings strive for an emotive/poetic resonance.
Tonalist paintings lean more towards a minor key than a major one.
Generally speaking, Tonalist paintings hold off from a higher color key as is in evidence in most Impressionist works.
These are the definitions that come to mind readily. Over the next few blog posts I will talk about each of these points one by one.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
A bit about today's study; at first I was not going to do a study of this painting. I felt that it might be too saturated in chroma. Also, it's not as strong as most of the paintings of George Inness Junior's father George Inness. After some consideration though I decided that it would be appropriate.
As it turns out I really enjoyed doing this study and I think more highly of George Inness Junior after having completed it. You will see here below where I have included an image of the original painting that I did a study of, I eliminated the fisherman that was in the middle of Junior's painting. This in my view elevates the scene quite a bit. It just seems too hokey to have some guy in a boat standing there fishing. The scene certainly has more dignity without that addition.
I did the painting in two stages and I'm really happy with the way the glazes in the second pass accentuated the voluminous clouds in the sky. This was achieved with the application of thin black oil paint. The glazes were rubbed in and then rubbed off
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Original painting, George Inness Jr. Angler in a Pastoral Landscape