Catalog entry

Commentary

Evidence suggests that Albert Conant commissioned Fitz Henry Lane to draw the sketch from which this lithographic view of Norwich, Connecticut, was made. Conant then turned to a New York firm, Sarony & Major, to print the view in color in 1849. Napoleon Sarony was born in Quebec and came to New York where he learned lithography from Henry R. Robinson. He then worked for Nathaniel Currier before creating his own firm with Henry B. Major, who had also worked for Currier. The firm began printing lithographs in color in the 1840s. The process was complex, requiring the use of multiple stones, and it is unlikely that Lane participated in this aspect of the production.

As with View of Baltimore, from Federal Hill, 1850 (inv. 493), Lane made a painting of the subject of the lithograph. View of Norwich, Connecticut, 1847 (inv. 394).

Norwich, Connecticut, at mid-19th century, is perhaps best described as an “inland seaport.” Situated on the Thames River, sixteen miles north of Long Island Sound’s eastern end, it was accessible to maritime commerce and in turn served by two railroad systems with important inland links. Lane’s depiction of the waterfront shows railborne and waterborne transportation along a shore dominated by warehouses and office buildings. The presence of a large coastal steamship and a merchant brig approaching unaided by a tugboat indicates the river’s capacity for large vessels and traffic volume.

 As he did in many of his compositions from this period, Lane explores the interplay between urban and rural life in this view of Norwich with the cows in the foreground representing an agrarian way of life which was disappearing across the country, and the trains and the coastal steamship further in the composition representing the increasingly urban scene.

If Lane’s in situ drawing and a derivative painting of 1847 (View of Norwich, Connecticut, 1847 (inv. 394)) are of the same year, they are the only documents of his visit to eastern Connecticut, raising questions about other trips he might have made to this part of New England. In 1848, a lithograph of Providence, Rhode Island (View of Providence, R. I. 1848, 1849–52 (inv. 485)) was published by Scott’s Lithography, again from a Lane drawing. Could Lane have made drawings of the two cities in the course of a single trip, saving on travel costs?

–Erik Ronnberg, Melissa Trafton, Georgia Barnhill

Related Work in the Catalog

Supplementary Images

Viewpoint map of Norwich. U.S. Geological Survey.

Map of eastern Connecticut and Thames River. Norwich at center near top margin. U.S. Geological Survey.