In George Inness' Old Farm—Montclair, the New Jersey rural landscape appears timeless and dreamlike. Using a limited, tonal palette, the painter slowed time, suspended motion and blurred distinctions between matter and space. Such concerns reveal Inness' conversion to the philosophy of the religious mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, who described a spiritual realm underlying and flowing through earthly existence. The painter's adoption of a rather abstract, ethereal style marked a distinct break from the highly detailed manner of the Hudson River School of landscape painting, which had declined in significance by the late 19th century. Inness' poetic, contemplative manner was also perceived as a reaction against Impressionism, thought by many to be superficial and foreign.
