Autumn, my favorite season! Beautiful colors, changing of the light, the crisp feel in the air, everything glows, so many things about it make me smile. These five classic autumn paintings by the masters are so lovely and inspiring!

It’s also my favorite to paint and you can bet your bottom dollar I have more autumn paintings saved as inspiration than any other season or genre.  I just love them!

1. George Inness – Early Autumn, Montclair (1891)

Hands down my favorite Autumn painting, and possibly my favorite painting of all.  Inness and his work are so incredibly beautiful, soft, mysterious, other-worldly even. 

Inness was the 5th of 13 children born to his father and mother, who were farmers. He studied as a teen with several painter-teachers and was lucky enough to attract sponsorship to travel to Europe and study in Rome.

According to Wikipedia: 

During trips to Paris in the early 1850s, Inness came under the influence of artists working in the Barbizon school of France. 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. 

Inness is also known for his works in tonalism which is defined as an overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist within a landscape. Another famous tonalist is James Abbot McNeill Whistler.  

I particularly love Early Autumn, Montclair for the color, mood, and overall atmosphere.  I also love the composition and crop as it is a little unexpected. The edges are soft throughout except for the brightest branch being lit by the sunset.  The small house, cows, and workers add a gentle touch.  I love the blue of the sky and the softness of the clouds.  

This painting is at the Delaware Art Museum, though I’m uncertain if it’s currently on display.  Anyone know? 

2. Claude Monet, Autumn on the Seine at Argenteuil (1873)

Claude Monet executed this painting of the Seine near Argenteuil, northwest of Paris, shortly after his arrival there in 1871.  He had converted a small boat into a floating studio and this painting was likely painted there! The building is  the Château Michelet . 

The small, delicate brushstrokes identify this work as belonging to the “high” phase of Impressionism.

Monet’s beautiful colors and use of very “mid-tone” values is prominent in this painting.  The reflections of the autumnal trees are so soft and delicate…The shoreline is almost hard to distinguish and begs for a longer view.  

This painting is in a private collection. 

3. Vincent van Gogh, Noon, Rest from Work (after Millet)

I love this painting…not your typical “Autumn” scene but I feel it fits the theme.  The harvest is at hand, the wheat is golden, the sky is clear. 

What’s interesting about this piece, is that it is a copy of another artist’s work!  When Van Gogh was in the Saint Paul asylum, he needed subjects to paint during the cold months when painting en plein air was impossible. 

Seeking to be reinvigorated artistically, Van Gogh did more than 30 copies of works by some of his favorite artists…Rather than replicate, Van Gogh sought to translate the subjects and composition through his perspective, color, and technique. Spiritual meaning and emotional comfort were expressed through symbolism and color. His brother Theo van Gogh would call the pieces in the series some of his best work. (Wikipedia)

Here is Millet’s original:

I love how Van Gogh used the lines in this piece and then added his own color and style.  And isn’t it encouraging to know that one of the most famous artists we know of needed some additional inspiration?

Van Gogh wrote to his brother about this series: “I started making them inadvertently and now find that I can learn from them and that they give me a kind of comfort. My brush then moves through my fingers like a bow over the strings of a violin – completely for my pleasure.”

To read more and see more of the work he painted while in asylum, visit here.  

4. Norman Rockwell, Back to School (1959)

This beautiful illustration was painted for a four seasons calendar by Brown and Bigelow. I love it so much as I do all of his work. 

The colors and texture of this piece (especially the grasses and water) look almost like they could be pastel.  I love how he used purples in the pathway – see how this carries the color from the front to the back mountains? 

Rockwell has been criticized for being overly sweet and sentimental but to me, his work is exactly what we all need to remember.  Times with family doing “regular” day-to-day things are often the most precious as time marches on.

I love the little boys staring in the water…did they just throw a rock in? The most vivid colors are in their clothing – drawing the eye and creating strong focal points.  

5. Arthur Streeton, Sunlight (Cutting on a hot road), 1895

I’ve mentioned Australian painter Arthur Streeton before and can’t help but post this beauty. The colors in this piece blow me away.  The dark blue distance against the glory of these trees…notice how they have purple trunks! The ultramarine shadows are strong and yet this painting doesn’t appear to be so colorful or have a cartoonish feel.  Mostly because the bright and vivid colors are in very small areas and are dominated by “earthier” colors in the trees and grasses.

I love how there almost seems to be an underpainting here…notice how loose the foreground is.  All of the finer detail is in the trees and hard edges of the road. 

Streeton is easily in the top 3 of my favorite artists.  Google his work and be blown away!

I’d love to hear what your favorite classic autumn painting was – or is there another painting or artist we need to know about?  Share below in the comments or on our Facebook page! 🙂

Happy Wednesday!

xoxo,

Bethany