Emanuel Swedenborg, an eighteenth-century Swedish scientist and philosopher whose writings were popular throughout the nineteenth century, held that both mankind and nature were manifestations of the divine. As Inness's son noted, this principle provided the artist with "the consciousness of God in his soul manifested in every experience of his life." Several works with Berkshire titles date after 1868, when Inness was baptized a Swedenborgian. In them he often downplayed descriptive details in favor of color combinations and geometric compositions that he believed corresponded to different spiritual states.

Summer Sunshine and Shadow, c. 1862
Oil on canvas, 12 x 18 inches
Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas. Gift of Mrs. Raymond A. Barrows in memory of Mr. Barrows

In the Berkshires, 1877-78
Oil on canvas, 20 x 30 inches
Malden Public Library, Malden, Massachusetts