Art Institute of Chicago
The Old Mill
George Inness (American, 1825–1894)LinkedCulture matchlcp-79d923017482
- Date
- 1849
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Culture
- United States
- Department
- Arts of the Americas
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Object ID
- 30701
George Inness began painting landscapes during a period in which the public preferred depictions of the untamed American wilderness; throughout his career, however, he insisted upon the importance of the cultivated landscape as a subject for art. In this work, the brightly lit figures and mill contrast with the shadowy darkness of the trees, suggesting the potential for danger at the edge of the forest. The rundown mill represents a stable, settled area but also points to the changes brought about by industrialization. Inness thus created a contradictory view of rural life that celebrates its simplicity and safety while hinting at its decline.
The authoritative record is held by Art Institute of Chicago. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Get printable QR codesHide QR codes
Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.
Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- The William Owen Goodman and Erna Sawyer Goodman Collection
- Provenance
- American Art Union, New York; James P. Kelly, New York, 1849, by distribution from the American Art-Union; (Sale, John Fell O'Brien, Auctioneer, at the Waldorf-Astoria, New York, January 13-14, 1902, no. 108); William Owen and Erna Sawyer Goodman, by 1939; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1939.
Linked open data
Authority identifiers that link this record into the wider web of cultural data — stable references you can follow to the source.
- Object type
- AAT300033618
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Art Institute of Chicago and other institutions.