George Inness was an American landscape painter in the mid– to late–19th century. He was influenced by both the Old Master painters he studied academically and the Hudson River School, a group of artists who saw nature as an extension of God and their accurate portrayal of nature as a type of worship. Inness is slightly distinguished from the pious Hudson River School painters because he was equally (if not more) interested in his work’s connection to philosophy and spirituality. Many art historians view the later of work of Inness, a staunch abolitionist, as expressive of the simultaneous turmoil and hope he felt for America during the Civil War.