The Mill Stream, Montclair, New Jersey
On View In:
Gallery 322
Artist:   George Inness  
Title:   The Mill Stream, Montclair, New Jersey  
Date:   c. 1888  
Medium:   Oil on canvas  
Dimensions:   30 1/2 x 45 in. (77.47 x 114.3 cm) (canvas)  
Credit Line:   Gift of Don and Diana Lee Lucker  
Location:   Gallery 322  

When George Inness moved to Montclair, New Jersey in 1878, his new surroundings of brooks, meadows, farms and woods became the inspiration for the remainder of the artist's career. Another element in the midst of this natural beauty was the printing company owned by Samuel Crump, the tower and chimney of which appear in the background of The Mill Stream, Montclair, New Jersey. Far from making a statement on the negative aspects of industrial encroachment, Inness used the factory to portray the "civilized landscape" in which vistas of nature are enhanced by signs of mankind's progress. The artist bent all his artistic powers to support this theory, uniting composition, color, light, and mood to infuse into his industrial landscape a lyricism that echoes the idyllic pastoral landscapes of Claude Lorrain.

Artist/Creator(s)     
Name:   Inness, George  
Nationality:   American  
Life Dates:   American, 1825 - 1894  
 

Object Description  
  
Inscriptions:   Signature LL in black: [G. Inness]  
Classification:   Paintings  
Physical Description:   Landscape. girl on left bank of stream, which flows down to foreground; two tall trees at right; factory chimney and houses behind a forest in the background  
Creation Place:   North America, United States, , ,  
Accession #:   2000.236  
Owner:   The Minneapolis Institute of Arts