George Inness's view of the Delaware Rive (near the Kittatinny Ridge of the Appalachian Mountains) includes details like river rafts and a puffing train engine that represent human industry within a natural setting filled with color and light. Inness, a believer in the antislavery cause along with his close friend Henry Ward Beecher, used his most important Civil War-period paintings to convey an optimistic vision in which clearing skies and flourishing landscapes suggested the promise of peace and national prosperity.
