Early Morning, Tarpon Springs

In 1878 the painter George Inness wrote in Harper’s magazine:

"Details in the pictures must be elaborated only enough fully to reproduce the impression that the artist wishes to reproduce. When [there are more details], the impression is weakened or lost, and we see simply an array of external things which may be cleverly painted and may look very real, but which do not make an artistic painting. . . . The one is poetic truth, the other is scientific truth; the former is aesthetic, the latter is analytic."

In the course of his lengthy career, Inness increasingly eschewed precision of detail in his paintings, conveying mood and emotion through richness of tone and broadness of handling. He first visited Florida about 1890, and he subsequently established a house and studio in Tarpon Springs, where he executed this painting. In a pink-and-blue morning light, a lone man studies a cluster of buildings in the middle distance. Through blurred outlines and delicate, subtle tonalities, as well as the solitary presence of the figure, Inness masterfully evoked the brightening day and peaceful mood of this moment.