Moonrise Artist: George Inness (American, 1825–1894)

1887

American Paintings and Sculpture

Not on view


Poetic and evocative, this twilight landscape shows the moon rising over the marshes and islands of Alexandria Bay, New York. George Inness felt that the goal of a work of art is "not to instruct, not to edify, but to awaken an emotion…and the true beauty of the work consists in the beauty of the sentiment or emotion which it inspires." Viewing all of nature as symbolic and full of meaning, Inness imbued his landscapes with a spiritual dimension, influenced by the ideas of the eighteenth-century Swedish theologian Emanuel Swedenborg.

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

20 1/4 × 30 1/2 in. (51.4 × 77.5 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of Teresa Heinz in memory of her husband, H. John Heinz III, B.A. 1960

Accession Number

1992.5.13

Geography

Made in Montclair, New Jersey, United States

Culture

American

Period

19th century

Classification

Paintings

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Bibliography
  • Michael Quick, George Inness: a catalogue raisonne´ (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2007), 222–23, no. 926, pl. 193, fig. 926
  • Marco Goldin, America!, exh. cat. (Treviso: Linea d'ombra libri, 2007), 366, no. 172, ill
  • "Artistic Beauty of the Century," Antiques 89, no. 5 (May 1966), 670
  • Art News 65 (March 1966), 15
  • Apollo 81 (June 1965),
  • Leroy Ireland, The Works of George Inness: An Illustrated Catalgue Raisonne (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1965), 316-317
  • Art in America 52, no. 4 (1964), 129
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

landscapes (representations), religious art

Subject

men rivers trees

Signed

Signed l.l. in black paint "G. Inness / 1887"

Technical metadata and APIs

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