Considered to be the founder of modern American landscape painting, George Inness was born near Newburgh, New York, and moved to Newark, New Jersey, around 1829. He became interested in art and first studied with John Jesse Barker (c. 1815 1856) in 1841 and then spent two years working as an engraver's apprentice. Inness then studied for a month with the French artist Regis Francois Gignoux (1816 1882), who exposed him to the traditions of European art and contemporary French painting. Inness exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York in 1844 to 1894, at the American Art Union in New York in 1845, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia in 1852 and 1868, and at the Brooklyn Art Association from 1862 to 1892. He traveled again to Europe in 1847 and 1850. Upon his return, he set up a studio on New York’s Lower Broadway. Inness's third trip to Europe in 1854 introduced him to the works of the Barbizon painters, particularly Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875), Charles-Francois Daubigny (1817-1878), and Theodore Rousseau (1812-1867). From 1859 to 1864 he lived a suburban life with his family in Medfield, Massachussetts, near Boston, and from 1864 to 1867 he lived in Eagleswood, New Jersey. Inness spent the period from 1870 to 1875 in France and Italy before taking up permanent residence in Montclair, New Jersey. Inness died at Bridge of Allan, Scotland, while admiring a sunset with his wife.