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Fitz Henry Lane
HISTORICAL ARCHIVE • CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ • EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE
An online project under the direction of the CAPE ANN MUSEUM
An online project under the direction of the CAPE ANN MUSEUM
Catalog entry
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inv. 159
Looking up Portland Harbor
1863 Graphite on paper (2 sheets) 9 1/2 x 29 1/2 in. (24.1 x 74.9 cm) Inscribed, signed, and dated across bottom (in pencil): Looking Up Portland Harbor / F.H. Lane / del. August 1863; Inscribed lower right (in pencil): Sketch made for a picture for J.H.B. Lang in which to introduce steamer Harvest Moon for J.H.B. Lang; Inscribed lower right (in pencil): FHL / JLS jr.
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Related Work in the Catalog
Supplementary Images
Viewpoint Map for Inv. 159
Photo: © U.S. Coast Survey, NOAA Historic Collection
Provenance (Information known to date; research ongoing.)
the Artist, Gloucester, Mass.
Joseph L. Stevens, Jr., Gloucester, Mass.
Samuel H. Mansfield, Gloucester, Mass.
Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass., 1927
Marks & Labels
Marks: Inscribed upper left (in red ink): 44 [numbering system used by curator A. M. Brooks upon Samuel H. Mansfield's donation of the drawings to the Cape Ann Museum]
Exhibition History
No known exhibitions.Published References
McCormick, Gene E. "Fitz Hugh Lane, Gloucester Artist, 1804–1865." Art Quarterly 15, no. 4 (Winter 1952)., pg. 298, Looking up Portland Harbor. ⇒ includes 
text
text
Wilmerding, John. Fitz Hugh Lane, 1804–1865: American Marine Painter. Salem, MA: The Essex Institute, 1964., p. 48.
Paintings and Drawings by Fitz Hugh Lane. Gloucester, MA: Cape Ann Historical Association, 1974., fig. 93.
Commentary
This drawing and a photograph (with an over-drawn grid) of the side-wheel steamship “Harvest Moon” (Steamer "Harvest Moon," Lying at Wharf in Portland, 1863 (inv. 186)) are the best-known surviving record of Lane’s visit to Portland, Maine in 1863. Inscriptions on the drawing clearly state that it was to be the background scene for a portrait of “Harvest Moon” for her owners, the Boston firm of Spears, Lang and Delano.
The drawing’s viewing point appears to be close to – if not on – the harbor island where Fort Scammel was situated. Given a wartime state of alert, it seems likely that Lane would not have been welcome on the island, causing him to make the drawing while in a boat at a discreet distance offshore. The drawing’s direction of view is slightly north of due west, with an angle of view of 60 degrees, extending the margins to Fort Preble at left and to Fish Point at right. The resulting scope and depth of view provide ample seaway for the steamship to occupy as much of the setting as the artist deemed desirable.
–Erik Ronnberg