George Inness, 'The Delaware Water Gap', about 1857
About the work
Overview
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.
In the 1850s, much of the American landscape was still unknown to European settlers. Inness gives it a distinctly European look to suggest fertile land that can be easily inhabited and cultivated. 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. Inness includes the recently constructed railroad and a steam locomotive, but does not make them the focus of the painting.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- The Delaware Water Gap
- Artist
- George Inness
- Artist dates
- 1825 - 1894
- Date made
- about 1857
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 90.5 × 138.5 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bequeathed to the Tate Gallery by J. Sanders Slater in 1939 and transferred in 1956
- Inventory number
- NG4998
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Judy Egerton, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The British Paintings’, London 2000; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
-
2008Art in the Age of Steam: Europe, America and the Railway, 1830-1960Walker Art Gallery18 April 2008 - 10 August 2008The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art13 September 2008 - 18 January 2009
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2018Once Upon a Time in America: Three Centuries of American ArtWallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud23 November 2018 - 24 March 2019
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2022The Train JourneyMusée des Beaux-Arts (Nantes)21 October 2022 - 5 February 2023
Bibliography
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1911E. Daingerfield, George Inness: The Man and His Art, New York 1911
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1917G. Inness, The Life, Art and Letters of George Inness, New York 1917
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1933H.B. Wehle, 'An Early Landscape by George Inness', Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, XXVIII/4, 1933, pp. 70-1
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1946E. McCausl, George Inness: An American Landscape Painter, 1825-1894, New York 1946
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1953Knoedler Gallery, A Half Century of Landscape Painting by George Inness (1825-1894) (exh. cat. M. Knoedler & Company, Inc., 16 - 28 November 1953), New York 1953
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1959Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: British School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1959
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1966W.H. Gerdts, 'Review: L. Ireland, the Works of George Inness. An Illustrated Catalogue Raisonné', Master Drawings, IV/3, 1966
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1970N. Cikovsky Jr., 'George Inness and the Hudson River School', American Art Journal, II, 1970, pp. 36-57
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1973A. von Werner, Inness Landscapes, New York 1973
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1985N. Spassky, American Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born Between 1816 and 1845, New York 1985
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1985N. Cikovsky and M. Quick, George Inness (exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1 April - 9 June 1985; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 22 June - 7 September 1986), Los Angeles 1985
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1993N. Cikovsky, George Inness, New York 1993
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1994R. Simon, 'So What about American Art?', Apollo, CXXXIX/385, 1994
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1996P.J. Staiti, 'George Inness', in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, London 1996, vol. 15, pp. 858-60
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1998J. Egerton, The British School, London 1998
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2000Egerton, Judy, National Gallery Catalogues: The British Paintings, revised edn, London 2000
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.