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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. 269
View of Baltimore
Baltimore from Federal Hill; View of Baltimore from Federal Hill
1850 Oil on canvas 18 5/8 x 27 5/8 in. (47.3 x 70.2 cm) No inscription found
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Related Work in the Catalog
Provenance (Information known to date; research ongoing.)
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York
The Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont
Lapham and Dibble Gallery, Inc., New York, New York
Unknown Owner, Purchased from Lapham and Dibble, Inc., 2004
Exhibition History
DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts, Fitz Hugh Lane: The First Major Exhibition, March 20–April 17, 1966., no. 29.
Traveled to: Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, Maine, 30–6, 1966.
Traveled to: Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, Maine, 30–6, 1966.
Vermont Arts Council, Montpelier, Vermont, Art Out of the Attic, August 27–September 1969.
University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, Maryland, 350 Years of Art and Architecture in Maryland, October 26–December 9, 1984.
Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Maryland, Baltimore, Inc.: From Mobtown to Charm City, May 14, 1997–February 28, 1999.
Published References
Wilmderding, John. "The Lithographs of Fitz Hugh Lane." Old-Time New England LIV, no. 2 (October–December 1963)., p. 37.
Wilmerding, John. Fitz Hugh Lane, 1804–1865: American Marine Painter. Salem, MA: The Essex Institute, 1964., fig. 2, p. 43.
The American Neptune, Pictorial Supplement VII: A Selection of Marine Paintings by Fitz Hugh Lane, 1804–1865. Salem, MA: The American Neptune, 1965., pl. XVIII, no. 44. ⇒ includes 
text
text
Wilmerding, John. Fitz Hugh Lane: The First Major Exhibition. Lincoln, MA: De Cordova Museum; in association with Colby College Art Museum, 1966., no. 29. ⇒ includes text
text
Muller, Nancy C. Paintings and Drawings at the Shelburne Museum. Shelburne, VT: Shelburne Museum, 1976., no. 191.
350 Years of Art and Architecture in Maryland. College Park, MD: University of Maryland, 1984.
Crossman, Carl L. "Lithographs of Fitz Hugh Lane." In American Maritime Prints, edited by Elton W. Hall. New Bedford, MA: The Whaling Museum by the Old Dartmouth Historical Society, 1987, pp. 63–94. The Proceedings of the Eighth Annual North American Print Conference held at the Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Mass., May 6–7, 1977., p.82. ⇒ includes text
text
Training the Eye and the Hand: Fitz Hugh Lane and 19th Century Drawing Books. Gloucester, MA: Cape Ann Historical Association, 1993., p. 20, Baltimore from Federal Hill.
Wilmerding, John. Fitz Henry Lane. Gloucester, MA: Cape Ann Historical Association, 2005. Reprint of Fitz Hugh Lane, by John Wilmerding. New York: Praeger, 1971. Includes new information regarding the artist's name., ill. 17, text, p. 29, View of Baltimore from Federal Hill.
Barnhill, Trafton. Drawn from Nature & on Stone: the Lithographs of Fitz Henry Lane. Gloucester, MA: Cape Ann Museum, 2017., fig. 64. ⇒ includes text
text
Commentary
This painting was presumably taken from the lithograph by Lane View of Baltimore, from Federal Hill, 1850 (inv. 493). Lane drew this scene in 1849-50 from the grassy heights of Federal Hill, on the southeast side of Baltimore’s City Basin, looking north by west to the oldest part of the city. As is typical of Lane’s city views, there is an active foreground, in this case well-dressed citizens strolling on the heights. Of particular note is the intermingling of black and white citizens in what appears a harmonious Sunday gathering on equal footing, likely an unusual sight for Lane that he made a point to document. It is the only depiction of African Americans we know of by Lane except for a single dockworker in "Starlight" in Harbor, c.1855 (inv. 249).
In the painting Lane has lowered his vantage point from that of the lithograph and enlarged both the foreground activity and the buildings on the distant shore. He has also put a shadow across some of the foreground creating a stronger and more dramatic composition than the lithograph.
–Sam Holdsworth