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.