Inness apparently cared very little about the titles of his paintings. It is possible that many were titled by the executors of his estate and organizers of his memorial exhibition and that some of his works were even signed and dated after his death. During the early twentieth century dealers often gave to his paintings what they felt were more poetic titles. When listed in the catalogue of the executor’s sale, this painting was entitled Near My Studio, Milton and dated 1882. Its similarity in technique and motif to paintings of 1882, such as June (Brooklyn Museum), does seem greater than its resemblance to most paintings of 1886. The painting’s most striking feature, its firm structure of horizontal and vertical elements and their careful balance, might on the one hand seem to favor the later dating, since this principle of synthetic composition is strongest in the works of the artist’s final ten years. On the other hand, this concept first seems to emerge as a governing principle in his paintings of 1882. The painting’s very deliberate structure was advanced for 1882 and even 1886 and may be considered among the earliest works organized according to such a conspicuously geometrical scheme. It is cut into equal quadrants by the horizon halfway up the picture surface and the central vertical line of the gap in the trees and its corresponding reflection halfway across the surface. The trees are arranged at measured intervals to add a rhythm to this balance. It is noteworthy, however, that Inness shortened the tall tree on the right, perhaps to avoid the monotony of too close a symmetry.

After the Jacksonian presidency (1829–37), the adolescent country began an aggressive foreign policy of territorial expansion, exemplified by the success of the Mexican-American War (1846–48). Economic growth, spurred by new technologies such as the railroad and telegraph, assisted the early stages of empire building. As a comfortable and expanding middle class began to demonstrate its wealth and power, a fervent nationalist spirit was celebrated in the writings of Walt Whitman and Herman Melville. Artists such as Emanuel Leutze produced history paintings re-creating the glorious past of the relatively new country. Such idealizations ignored the mounting political and social differences that threatened to split the country apart. The Civil War slowed development, affecting every fiber of society, but surprisingly was not the theme of many paintings. The war’s devastation did not destroy the American belief in progress, and there was an undercurrent of excitement due to economic expansion and increased settlement of the West.
During the postwar period Americans also began enthusiastically turning their attention abroad. They flocked to Europe to visit London, Paris, Rome, Florence, and Berlin, the major cities on the Grand Tour. Art schools in the United States offered limited classes, so the royal academies in Germany, France, and England attracted thousands of young Americans. By the 1870s American painting no longer evinced a singleness of purpose. Although Winslow Homer became the quintessential Yankee painter, with his representations of country life during the reconstruction era, European aesthetics began to infiltrate taste.

• About the Era.
• Donahue, Kenneth. Los Angeles County Museum of Art Handbook. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1977.
• Cikovsky, Nicolai J.; Michael Quick.  George Inness.  Los Angeles:  Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1985.
• Fort, Ilene Susan and Michael Quick.  American Art:  a Catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection.  Los Angeles:  Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.
• Cleveland, David A. A History of American Tonalism: 1880-1920. New York: Winsted Press, 2017.