George Inness, 'The Delaware Water Gap', about 1857

This view is of the Delaware River, which flows between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, two of the original 13 states of what was to become the United States of America. We are positioned on the Pennsylvania side of the river, below the Delaware Water Gap, an area where the river has carved a large ridge through the Appalachian Mountains. The hills on either side of the river are the Kittatinny Mountains – the hill on the left (in Pennsylvania) is Mount Minsi and the one on the right (in New Jersey) is Mount Tammany.

In the 1850s, much of the American landscape was still unknown to European settlers. George Inness gives it a distinctly European look. The placid river, the relatively low height of the grass-covered hills and the trees and woodlands along the riverbanks all suggest fertile land that can be easily inhabited and cultivated. Inness reinforces this by including other details: cattle wade in the water, two men are fishing – as well as contemplating the landscape, like us – and a lumber raft makes its way north along the river. On the right, you can also see the recently constructed Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and a steam locomotive, but Inness does not make them the focus of the painting. This is a tranquil and domesticated landscape, a pastoral scene very different from the often dramatic and extremely harsh terrain that artists and photographers at this time were encountering further west. A rainbow on the left indicates that it has been raining. Inness captures the effect of light breaking through the clouds and eliminating what remains of the dark shadow in the immediate foreground.

Innes was around 30 years old when he painted this picture and already an established artist who had exhibited nationally. Born in New York, he had trained under the French painter, Régis-François Gignoux, a student of Paul Delaroche. He had also made two extended trips to Europe. While there, he had been impressed by the Barbizon landscape painters, especially their looser brushwork, more informal compositions and emphasis upon mood. He particularly admired the early work of Corot. However, perhaps also influenced by his study of Claude and Poussin while in Rome, Inness has given careful thought to the structure of the picture, which he divides into horizontal bands. These include the dark foreground, the mid-distance (which contains the human activity and livestock), the distant hills, the blue sky and a band of white clouds above it. These horizontal bands are countered by the diagonal line of the river which takes us towards the horizon and into the distance. The arc of the rainbow introduces another shape into the picture, which is echoed by the outline of the hills and the contour of the riverbank on the left.

This is first of many paintings by Inness of the Delaware Water Gap and the Delaware Valley that often include details similar to those we see here.