George Inness Sr. is portrayed in a close bust cabinet card produced in the Artotype process by Haercon & Liebstait, New York, showing the celebrated American landscape painter as a young man in a romantically composed and dramatically lit portrait. Inness appears in his twenties or early thirties, his dark hair swept back in loose curls from a broad forehead, wearing a dark coat with wide lapels and a large black bow tie over a white shirt with a gold pin at the collar, his gaze directed upward and to his left with an expression of intensity and aspiration. The Artotype process gives the print a smooth matte surface quality distinct from albumen, with a warm tonal range and gold-ruled border at the card edges.

The upward gaze and loose hair give the portrait a distinctly Romantic character well suited to Inness's reputation as the most spiritually inflected American painter of his generation. The reverse bears Culver Service Photos & Research labels identifying the subject as George Inness Sr., NA, with the notation Sr. 1895, a Culver Service barcode numbered 1857912, and a credit stamp indicating the card was loaned for one use.

George Inness (1825–1894) was the foremost American landscape painter of the second half of the nineteenth century, celebrated for atmospheric, spiritually charged canvases informed by the Barbizon painters and his Swedenborgian religious beliefs. His major works include Peace and Plenty, The Lackawanna Valley, and the luminous late landscapes produced in Montclair, New Jersey. He was elected to the National Academy of Design and remained productive until his death in Scotland in 1894. The Artotype portrait captures him decades before the white beard of his old age made his appearance iconic.

The reverse bears Culver Service Photos & Research labels at 205 East 42nd Street, New York, with handwritten identification reading Geo Inness / George Inness Sr. / NA / Sr. 1895, barcode label 1857912, and dealer code COLAXZ.