Montclair, New Jersey

Landscape painter George Inness (1825–1894) was one of the most influential American artists of the nineteenth century. From the Dorsky collection, his painting "Montclair, New Jersey," 1885, is an example of his more mature works, where the French Barbizon School’s influence is evident.

Inness painted "Montclair, New Jersey" the same year that he had settled there, and it is an outstanding example of his style during the last decade of his life. His home in Montclair was the subject of many of his late works.

During this phase of this artistic career, Inness explored the mystical components of nature through an abstract handing of shapes, with softened edges and saturated, vibrant colors. He illustrated the peaceful nature of the forest with its soft golden fallen leaves, and Inness carefully captured the golden hour—just before sunset, when the sun bathes the forest in a fairy tale–like light.

While some art historians believe that this painting is a study for a larger work, no known finished painting based specifically on this piece exists, although this work resembles the painting "Sundown Near Montclair" in the collection of the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in Hagerstown, Maryland.