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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. 72
Gloucester from the Outer Harbor
1852 Graphite and watercolor on paper (2 sheets) 9 1/2 x 31 1/2 in. (24.1 x 80 cm) Inscribed and signed lower right of center (in pencil): Gloucester from the Outer Harbor / F.H.Lane / del.; Inscribed lower left of center (in pencil): 35 / 7 / 28 / 145 / 20 / 25
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Related Work in the Catalog
Supplementary Images
Photo: © Cape Ann Museum
Gloucester from the Outer Harbor (magnified image)
Photo: Marcia Steele
© Cape Ann Museum
© Cape Ann Museum
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 black ink): 103 [numbering system used by curator A. M. Brooks upon Samuel H. Mansfield's donation of the drawings to the Cape Ann Museum]
Exhibition History
Cape Ann Historical Association, Gloucester, Massachusetts, Training the Eye and Hand: Fitz Hugh Lane and Nineteenth Century American Drawing Books, September 17, 1993–January 29, 1994.
Published References
Paintings and Drawings by Fitz Hugh Lane. Gloucester, MA: Cape Ann Historical Association, 1974., fig. 4.
Wilmerding, John. Paintings by Fitz Hugh Lane. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art; in association with Harry N. Abrams, 1988., ill. in b/w p. 68 fig. 7 (detail), Gloucester from the Outer Harbor.
Training the Eye and the Hand: Fitz Hugh Lane and 19th Century Drawing Books. Gloucester, MA: Cape Ann Historical Association, 1993., p. 18; p. 40, fig. 33, Gloucester from the Outer Harbor.
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. 53.
Craig, James. Fitz H. Lane: An Artist's Voyage through Nineteenth-Century America. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2006., fig. 2 (detail).
Newton, Travers, and Marcia Steele. "The Series Paintings of Fitz Henry Lane: From Field Sketch to Studio Painting." In Emil Bosshard, Paintings Conservator (1945–2006): Essays by Friends and Colleagues, edited by Maria de Peverelli, Mario Grassi, and Hans-Christoph von Imhoff. Florence: Centro Di, 2009, pp. 194–215., fig. 9, p. 207. ⇒ includes 
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Commentary
This drawing is a sketch for Lane's large painting Gloucester Harbor, 1852 (inv. 38) and includes a beautiful and detailed watercolor depiction of the Fort. The Fort's appearance is similar to what is seen in Watch House Point, 1860 (inv. 292). Frequently, Lane used more than one sheet of paper in order to accommodate long, horizontal compositions.
Gloucester from the Outer Harbor is typical in the great detail with which Lane represented the landscape and buildings, as well as in the lack of vessels. Apparently he was so confident in sketching boats that he did not need to include them in preparatory works. However, this sketch is interesting in that there is an unrelated drawing in the middle foreground. It shows the cross section of a ship from the stern, depicting the frames from the midship section to the stern compressed into a single plane.
To identify all of the buildings on the Gloucester skyline, please use the interactive feature for Gloucester Harbor, 1852 (inv. 38).