Sunset in the Woods

George Inness

National Gallery of Art

A shaft of warm light from our left pierces a dark wood filled with tall trees in this horizontal landscape painting. The light falls on a stout white trunk and a portion of the moss-green forest floor near the center of the composition. The trunk is covered with patches of olive green and brown, while the other trees have high canopies of burnt-orange leaves, which reach off the top and side edges of the canvas. The ground is carpeted with growth painted in warm tones of brown and touches of scarlet red and pine green. A gray and brown boulder with a slash of rust orange near the center of the painting lies nestled among the trees beyond the white trunk. A lighter, emerald-green area glows to the left, in the distance beyond the boulder. The artist signed and dated the lower left, “G. Inness 1891.”