Autumn Oaks

The composition of this picture is splendidly orchestrated, with a striking effect of unity and emphasis, which did not exist in Inness's early works. He apparently painted this just after his return from four years abroad. His experience of painting in Italy and France led him away from naturalistic effects, with much disparate detail, toward coherent arrangements in which a single motif dominates and everything else is subordinate. Here, the sunlit trees dominate the entire landscape, their richness intensified by the deep foreground of shadow and the blue violet tones of the lowering sky.