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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. 493
View of Baltimore, from Federal Hill
1850 Colored lithograph on paper 30 13/16 x 22 5/8 in. (78.3 x 57.5 cm) Sheet: H. 18 13/16 x 71.1 in. (47.8 cm) 28 Published by A. Conant, 1850.
(lower left) Sketched from Nature by F.H. Lane (lower right) Lith. & Printed in colors by Sarony & Major New York Collections:
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Related Work in the Catalog
Supplementary Images
Viewpoint chart of Baltimore, Inner Harbor (derived from U.S. Coast Survey Chart of Baltimore, 1845)
Photo: © NOAA Historic Chart Collection
Exhibition History
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, M. & M. Karolik Collection of American Watercolors & Drawings, 1800–1875., October 18, 1962–January 6, 1963. [Impression: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. 528)].
DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts, Fitz Hugh Lane: The First Major Exhibition, March 20–April 17, 1966., no. 77. [Impression: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. 528)]
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. 5, lent by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. [Impression: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. 528)].
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, Printed Americana, June 7–August 31, 1976. [Impression: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. 528)].
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, Art and Commerce: Lithographs by Currier and Ives and Other Firms, March 13–August 1, 1982. [Impression: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. 528)].
Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Massachusetts, Drawn From Nature & on Stone: The Lithographs of Fitz Henry Lane, October 7, 2017–March 4, 2018. [Impression: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. 528)].
Published References
M. & M. Karolik Collection of American Watercolors & Drawings, 1800–1875. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1962., no. 492. [Impression: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. 528)].
Wilmderding, John. "The Lithographs of Fitz Hugh Lane." Old-Time New England LIV, no. 2 (October–December 1963)., pp. 37, 38.
Wilmerding, John. Fitz Hugh Lane, 1804–1865: American Marine Painter. Salem, MA: The Essex Institute, 1964., fig. 1. [Impression: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. 528)].
The American Neptune, Pictorial Supplement VII: A Selection of Marine Paintings by Fitz Hugh Lane, 1804–1865. Salem, MA: The American Neptune, 1965., plate XVIII, no. 174, View of Baltimore, from Federal Hill. ⇒ 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. 77. [Impression: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. 528)]. ⇒ includes text
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Fitz Hugh Lane 1804-1865. Rockland, ME: William A. Farnsworth Library and Art Museum, 1974., no. 5. [Impression: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. 528)].
Reps, John W. Views and Viewmakers of Urban America: Lithographs of Towns and Cities in the United States and Canada, Notes on the Artists and Publishers, and a Union Catalog of their Work,1825-1925. Columbia: University of Missouri Press., no. 1285, p.321.
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
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Training the Eye and the Hand: Fitz Hugh Lane and 19th Century Drawing Books. Gloucester, MA: Cape Ann Historical Association, 1993., p. 20, View of 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. 18, text, p. 29, View of Baltimore, from Federal Hill. [Impression: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. 528)].
Barnhill, Trafton. Drawn from Nature & on Stone: the Lithographs of Fitz Henry Lane. Gloucester, MA: Cape Ann Museum, 2017., fig. 63, text, p. 36, View of Baltimore, from Federal Hill. [Impression: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. 528)]. ⇒ includes text
textImpression information
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. 528)
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Photo: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. 528)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Gift of Maxim Karolik for the M. and M. Karolik Collection of American Watercolors and Drawings, 1800–1875 (52.1647)
Provenance
Maxim Karolik, Newport, R.I.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1952
Commentary
This print was designed by Lane, and he made a painting of the view View of Baltimore, 1850 (inv. 269). It was lithographed and printed with a tint stone by Sarony & Major of New York; some impressions are hand colored. Artist Albert Conant was the publisher. Conant had used a similar method of production with View of Norwich, from the West Side of the River, 1849 (inv. 454).
Lane drew this scene 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 seen on the viewpoint map below, City Basin is but a small part of Baltimore Harbor, which extends eastward and is guarded at its entrance by Fort McHenry. The city was growing rapidly at the time of Lane’s visit. U. S. Coast Survey charts of 1845 and 1865/66 (see below) show marked expansion of its suburbs in those two decades.
A strong presence of shipping and maritime enterprise is evident in this view, with railroads providing access to inland resources and commerce. Numerous steamships are present for coastal transportation throughout the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, and beyond to New York and south to American and Caribbean ports.
The presence of a merchant brig hints at overseas commerce as well, although competition from New York and Philadelphia assured Baltimore a secondary role. Fewer than a dozen packet ships served this port, and of those, only one was built in Baltimore (1).
Slavery, smuggling, and privateering in the early 19th century gave rise to a breed of vessel, using various rigs. Called a Baltimore clipper, after the port which built some of the fastest examples, one example with a brig rig can be seen at wharfside, in center middle ground. By Lane’s time, vessels built for these illicit trades departed quickly to southern ports and the West Indies, never to return (2, 3). A few small versions, having strongly raked masts and schooner rigs, can be seen in this view, but their employment was largely in fishing and short-distance transportation of farm produce and domestic needs (4).
The mutual gathering of white and black citizens must have impressed Lane, for this is his only depiction – known to date – showing them in numbers ("Starlight" in Harbor, c.1855 (inv. 249) shows only a single black dockworker). Maryland was divided over the issue of slavery, suggesting strong feelings on both sides of the issue, but with room for tolerance in public places. Unaccustomed to being in such surroundings, Lane may have been moved by this display to document it.
–Erik Ronnberg
References:
1. William Armstrong Fairburn, Merchant Sail (Center Lovell, ME: William Armstrong Fairburn Educational Foundation, Inc., 1954-55; reprint: Gloucester, MA: Ten Pound Island Book Co., 1992), pp. 1183, 1184.
2. Howard I. Chapelle, The National Watercraft Collection (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1960), pp. 22–25, 67, 68.
3. Chapelle, The Search for Speed under Sail (New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 1976), pp. 301–303.
4. Benjamin W. Labaree, et al., America and the Sea: A Maritime History (Mystic, CT: Mystic Seaport, 1998), pp. 223, 224, 251, 256.