Skip Navigation

Sunset over the Sea

George Inness

American Art

Trained in the realistic conventions of the Hudson River school, George Inness slowly evolved a highly expressive and original manner after the Civil War and turned to suggestive, nontopographical landscapes. In late works like Sunset over the Sea, Inness achieved a coloristic and expressive unity that stepped further away from objective reality. The image is divided into two registers, sea and sky, rendered in hazes of pigment that mimic the shifting state of air, water, and light in nature. Sea birds riding the currents of air above the waves in the foreground, which is bathed in an eerie light, undoubtedly bore a spiritual message for the artist, an ardent follower of the Swedenborgian faith.

MEDIUM Oil on panel
DATES 1887
DIMENSIONS 22 1/16 × 36 1/8 in. (56 × 91.8 cm) frame: 36 × 49 3/4 × 3 1/2 in. (91.4 × 126.4 × 8.9 cm)  (show scale)
SIGNATURE Signed lower left: "G. Inness 1887"
COLLECTIONS American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 34.488
CREDIT LINE Gift of the executors of the Estate of Colonel Michael Friedsam
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION George Inness (American, 1825-1894). Sunset over the Sea, 1887. Oil on panel, 22 1/16 × 36 1/8 in. (56 × 91.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the executors of the Estate of Colonel Michael Friedsam, 34.488 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 34.488_SL1.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 34.488_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT No known copyright restrictions
This work may be in the public domain in the United States. Works created by United States and non-United States nationals published prior to 1923 are in the public domain, subject to the terms of any applicable treaty or agreement. You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this work. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties, such as artists or artists' heirs holding the rights to the work. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. The Brooklyn Museum makes no representations or warranties with respect to the application or terms of any international agreement governing copyright protection in the United States for works created by foreign nationals. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
RECORD COMPLETENESS
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.