George Inness (1825-1894)
George Inness (1825-1894)
George Inness (1825-1894)
George Inness (1825-1894)
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Property from the Guild Hall Museum, Sold to Benefit Collections Care
GEORGE INNESS (1825-1894)

Moonrise

Details
GEORGE INNESS (1825-1894)
Moonrise
signed and dated 'G. Inness 1888' (lower right)
oil on canvas
30 1⁄4 x 45 1⁄4 in. (76.8 x 114.9 cm.)
Painted in 1888.
Provenance
Elliot Daingerfield, New York.
Richard H. Halsted, New York, acquired from the above.
American Art Galleries, American Art Association, New York, 9 January 1895, lot 17, sold by the above.
A.H. Walker, New York, 1895.
Mrs. A.H. Walker, New York.
M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1913.
Victor Harris, New York, 1917.
Mrs. Victor Harris, New York.
Gift to the present owner from the above, 1943.
Literature
Montezuma, "My Notebook: The Inness Paintings," The Art Amateur, vol. 32, no. 3, February 1895, p. 78.
"Inness," Masters in Art: A Series of Illustrated Monographs, vol. 9, pt. 102, 1908, p. 253.
E. Daingerfield, Fifty Paintings by George Inness, New York, 1913, p. 13, pl. 24, illustrated.
W.H.D., "Landscapes by Inness, Collection at Vose Gallery Illustrates All the Periods of the Great American Painter's Career," Boston Evening Transcript, December 30, 1915.
"Exhibition of Work by Inness," Boston Daily Advertiser, January 6, 1916.
E. Daingerfield, "George Inness," The Century Magazine, vol. 95, no. 1, November 1917, p. 75, illustrated.
G. Inness, Jr., Life, Art, and Letters of George Inness, 1917, pp. 276, 279, illustrated.
R. Flint, "Inness Centenary Show at Macbeth," Art News, vol. 23, no. 16, January 24, 1925, p. 2.
R. Flint, "The Inness Centennial Exhibition," Christian Science Monitor, circa January 30, 1925.
L. Ireland, The Works of George Inness: An Illustrated Catalogue Raisonné, Austin, Texas, 1965, p. 317, no. 1263, illustrated.
A.B. Bell, George Inness and the Visionary Landscape, New York, 2003, p. 100, illustrated.
M. Quick, George Inness: A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 2, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2007, pp. 224-25, no. 928, illustrated.
Exhibited
New York, Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, Catalogue of American Oil Paintings and Water Colors Loaned and For Sale; First Annual Summer Exhibition, June 1893, no. 67.
New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Seventh Annual Summer Exhibition of Paintings by American Artists, July 1914, no. 48.
Boston, Massachusetts, Vose Galleries, Exhibition of Works by George Inness, N.A., 1915-16, no. 5.
New York, Macbeth Gallery, George Inness 1825-1894; Centennial Exhibition, January 20-February 9, 1925, no. 4.
East Hampton, New York, Guild Hall, East Hampton: The American Barbizon, 1850-1900, May 10-June 8, 1969, no. 51.
Oakland, California, Oakland Museum Art Department; Santa Barbara, California, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, George Inness Landscapes: His Signature Years, 1884-1894, November 28, 1978-April 15, 1979, pp. 21, 57, illustrated.
New York, National Academy of Design, George Inness and the Visionary Landscape, September 17-December 28, 2003, pp. 100-01, no. 23, illustrated.
Amsterdam, Netherlands, Van Gogh Museum; St. Louis, Missouri, Saint Louis Art Museum, Millet and Modern Art: Van Gogh to Dali, October 4, 2019-May 17, 2020.

Brought to you by

Tylee Abbott
Tylee Abbott Vice President, Head of American Art

Lot Essay

Dealer and George Inness biographer Elliot Daingerfield wrote in a letter to M. Knoedler & Co. comparing the present work to another in his collection, "I have no hesitation in saying that 'Moonrise' is the nobler canvas, and I believe one of, if not the greatest 'Moonrise' pictures in Art. I might even go to the length of saying that Mr. Inness, himself, thought it a very high achievement in his art." (unpublished letter, November 15, 1914, as quoted in M. Quick, George Inness: A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 2, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2007, pp. 225)

Several years later, Impressionist master Childe Hassam praised the present work, "To me George Inness has painted this wonderful effect in nature as no one else in the history of art ever has, and there are only one or two other moonlight pictures that I know of in art that can rank with it [one by Whistler, another by Millet]...this canvas will remain one of the great moonlight pictures of the world." (unpublished letter, March 11, 1917, as quoted in M. Quick, George Inness: A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 2, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2007, pp. 225)

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