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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. 299
Sailing Ships Off New England Coast
Off the New England Coast; Sailing Off Cape Ann; Ships off Cape Ann; Ships Off the Maine Shore
c. 1855 Oil on canvas 30 1/8 x 48 1/4 in. (76.5 x 122.6 cm) No inscription found
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Supplementary Images
Provenance (Information known to date; research ongoing.)
Charles D. Childs, Boston
Virginia Steele Scott Foundation, San Marino, Calif.
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, Calif., 1983
Exhibition History
DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts, Fitz Hugh Lane: The First Major Exhibition, March 20–April 17, 1966., no. 23, Ships Off the Maine Shore.
Traveled to: Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, Maine, 30–6, 1966.
Traveled to: Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, Maine, 30–6, 1966.
John Wilmerding, William A. Farnsworth Library and Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, Fitz Hugh Lane 1804-1805, July 12–September 15, 1974., no. 36, Off the New England Coast.
Published References
The American Neptune, Pictorial Supplement VII: A Selection of Marine Paintings by Fitz Hugh Lane, 1804–1865. Salem, MA: The American Neptune, 1965., plate XXXII, no. 134, Ships off Cape Ann. ⇒ includes 
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Wilmerding, John. Fitz Hugh Lane: The First Major Exhibition. Lincoln, MA: De Cordova Museum; in association with Colby College Art Museum, 1966., no. 23, Ships Off the Maine Shore. ⇒ includes text
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Wilmerding, John. Fitz Hugh Lane. New York: Praeger, 1971., p. 75, Sailing Off Cape Ann.
Fitz Hugh Lane 1804-1865. Rockland, ME: William A. Farnsworth Library and Art Museum, 1974., no. 36, Off the New England Coast.
Commentary
This coastal New England setting depicts vessel traffic typical for the region in the mid-nineteenth century. The ship in the left foreground is a deep-water merchantman—either a packet making scheduled trips between specific ports, or an ocean carrier bringing cargos to various ports without adhering to specific departures and arrivals. The brig in the right background is a smaller version of the latter type of trading vessel. The square rig was found more suitable for long-distance voyages, as opposed to fore-and-aft-rigged vessels, whose sail plans were handier for coastal navigation, where frequent tacking and sailing closer to the wind were necessary.
A popular variation of the schooner rig is seen in the center of this painting. Called a topsail schooner, the vessel’s square fore topsail helped to steady her motion in heavy seas. Another hybrid rig was the half brig, or hermaphrodite brig, seen at left in the background. Half brigs were well suited to long coastal voyages, going beyond American shores to Canadian waters, the West Indies, and even further.
More problematic is the lighthouse and its location. In Lane’s time there were very few lighthouses on the New England coast that were 100 feet high and having this example’s slender proportions. Minot’s Light and Boon Island Light were fairly distant from land; Thacher’s lights were paired, and Boston Light’s proportions and setting were very different. Petit Manan Light, situated on a rocky ledge—Petit Manan Point—when viewed from the south-southeast at a very low level (as in a small boat) could appear to the viewer much like this image. To the left (looking northwest) would lie Dyer’s Neck, Cranberry Point, and Prospect Harbor—all distant and hard-to-identify coastal details. Did Lane add imaginary background topography and details for want of an opportunity to view them closer?
If this painting does depict Petit Manan, when did Lane visit it? It is not mentioned in Stevens’s account of the 1852 trip, when he and Lane sailed to and explored Mount Desert Rock. Using a harbor on the south coast of Mount Desert Island, a trip to Petit Manan would have been one of similar distance, requiring a day for that visit and nothing more. Absent an account by Stevens of such a trip, this explanation seems possible, but only that.
– Erik Ronnberg