George Inness Quotes & Sayings

The true end of Art is not to imitate a fixed material condition, but to represent a living motion, — George Inness

The highest art is where has been most perfectly breathed the sentiment of humanity ... Some persons suppose that landscape has no power of communicating human sentiment. But this is a great mistake. The civilized landscape peculiarly can: and therefore I love it more and think it more worthy of reproduction than that which is savage and untamed. It is more significant. Every act of man, every thing of labor, effort, suffering, want, anxiety, necessity, love, marks itself wherever it has been. — George Inness

You must suggest to me reality
you can never show me reality. — George Inness

The greatness of art is not in the display of knowledge, or in material accuracy, but in the distinctness with which it conveys the impressions of a personal vital force, that acts spontaneously, without fear or hesitation. — George Inness

The purpose of the painter is simply to reproduce in other minds the impression which a scene has made upon him. A work of art does not appeal to the intellect. It does not appeal to the moral sense. Its aim is to instruct, not to edify, but to awaken an emotion. — George Inness

The true use of art is, first, to cultivate the artist's own spiritual nature. — George Inness