The Lackawanna Valley

"The Lackawanna Valley" is a luminous and historically rich painting by George Inness, capturing the dawn of the industrial age in northeastern Pennsylvania. Set near Scranton—home to the first roundhouse of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad—the scene harmonizes natural beauty with technological progress. A steam locomotive curves through the gently rolling valley as smoke rises from a modest town nestled among the hills. The foreground features a contemplative figure resting on a sunlit slope, gazing over the changing landscape. While tree stumps dot the field, they subtly signal human development rather than disruption, blending past and future in a scene that remains calm and pastoral.