GEORGE INNESS (1825-1894)

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 (unpublished letter, November 15, 1914, as quoted in M. Quick, George Inness: A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 2, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2007, pp. 225)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 (unpublished letter, March 11, 1917, as quoted in M. Quick, George Inness: A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 2, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2007, pp. 225)