George Inness (1825-1894)
Twilight
signed and dated 'G. Inness 1891' (lower right)
oil on canvas
20 1/4 x 30 1/8 in. (51.4 x 76.5 cm.)
Painted in 1891.
Footnotes:
Provenance
Tucker Estate, Palm Springs, California.
John R. Waugaman (1931-2017), Palm Springs, California, acquired from the above, circa 1995-1999.
By descent to the present owner from the above, 2017.

We wish to thank Michael Quick, foremost authority on the work of George Inness and author of George Inness: A Catalogue Raisonné, for his kind assistance in cataloging this work. This work will be included in Michael Quick's forthcoming supplement to the catalogue raisonné of the works of George Inness.

Michael Quick notes of the present work that, 'The composition of Twilight relates to that of two other Inness paintings, both from the early and mid 1880s, at least six years before the date of Twilight. The first of these, number 818 in my catalogue of the works of George Inness, is dated 1883. The second, which is even closer in composition, number 843 in my catalogue, is the celebrated painting, Sunset, 1885, now in the collection of the Columbus (Ohio) Museum of Art. It was prominently reproduced in 1911, just before it brought a record price at auction, drawing considerable press attention. Since then it repeatedly has been featured in exhibition of the work of Inness. It would be easy to assume that Twilight, 1891, is nothing more than a copy of that famous Sunset, 1885. There are other examples, in the work of Inness, of his reinterpretation, in the 1890s, of his celebrated paintings of the late 1870s and the 1880s. Always there are recognizable stylistics differences in these new versions. For instance, one can see how Inness changed the gradual slope of Sunset, 1885 with its bulky log, into the steeply rising foreground of the 1890s, which can appear as a flat band across a painting. Another recognizable stylistic characteristic of the 1890s, in Twilight, 1891, is that period's insistent geometrical structure, in this case with the strong vertical of the large tree trunk, at right angles to the simplified, clear line of the horizon. In addition, one finds the thinner paint of many landscapes of the 1890s, most noticeable in the skillful brushing of very thin paint, possibly glazes, in the colored sky. It is clear to me that Twilight, 1891, fully in Inness's hand, is a reinterpretation, six years later, of one of his great critical successes of the 1880s, Sunset, 1885.' (M. Quick, unpublished letter, August 9, 2017)