George Inness' mystical view of nature has…

George Inness' mystical view of nature has intensified over the years.

His luminous, atmospheric landscapes now dissolve into shimmering color, magnificent in itself and no longer supported by formal construction.

In The Home of the Heron (1893; Edward B. Butler Collection/Art Institute of Chicago) painted when Inness is sixty-eight, he uses subtle tonal variety to suggest a hazy atmosphere; the overlapping veils of color unite earth and sky and underscore the harmony of the universe—a tenet central to Swedenborgianism, the belief system to which he adheres.