Now recognized as one of the most influential American artists of the nineteenth century, Inness was influenced by the Hudson River School at the start of his career.

There he was introduced to the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg, which was significant for him; he expressed that spiritualism in the works of his maturity (1879–1894).

Although Inness's style evolved through distinct stages over a prolific career that spanned more than forty years and 1,000 paintings, his works consistently earned acclaim for their powerful, coordinated efforts to elicit depth of mood, atmosphere, and emotion.

A master of light, color, and shadow, he became noted for creating highly ordered and complex scenes that often juxtaposed hazy or blurred elements with sharp and refined details to evoke an interweaving of both the physical and the spiritual nature of experience.

"[2] Within his lifetime, art critics hailed Inness as one of America's greatest artists.

[6] He was the fifth of thirteen children born to John William Inness, a farmer, and his wife, Clarissa Baldwin.

[7] In 1839 he studied for several months with an itinerant painter, John Jesse Barker.

[8] During this time he attracted the attention of French landscape painter Régis François Gignoux, with whom he subsequently studied.

[6] Throughout the mid-1840s he also attended classes at the National Academy of Design, and studied the work of Hudson River School artists Thomas Cole and Asher Durand; "If," Inness later recalled thinking, "these two can be combined, I will try.

Barbizon landscapes were noted for their looser brushwork, darker palette, and emphasis on mood.

Inness quickly became the leading American exponent of Barbizon-style painting, which he developed into a highly personal style.

"[25] His abiding interest in spiritual and emotional considerations did not preclude Inness from undertaking a scientific study of color,[26] nor a mathematical,[27] structural approach to composition: "The poetic quality is not obtained by eschewing any truths of fact or of Nature...Poetry is the vision of reality.

A memorial exhibition was conducted at the Fine Arts Building in New York City.