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Catalog entry

inv. 98
Sunrise through Mist
Sunrise Through Mist: Pigeon Cove, Gloucester
1852
Oil on canvas
24 1/4 x 36 1/4 in. (61.6 x 92.1 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: F.H. Lane / 1852

Commentary

Sunrise through Mist diverges from Lane’s typically clear-eyed depiction of place and events, and presents a highly romantic, somewhat fantastical view of an early-morning coast with the sun breaking through the mist. The coast is unidentified; possibly we are in Maine, based on the rocky bluff at the end of the cove.

A group of men load their dories and chat on the beach as they prepare to launch, while the man on the right approaches a small sloop that floats amongst the rocks on the shore. A lighter approaches the beach with a cargo off-loaded from the cluster of larger vessels gathered just off the beach. The sun breaks through a heavy mist, casting a pink blanket of humidity across the whole scene. There is an overlying feeling of torpor, as if the very thickness of the light has slowed all activity to a standstill.

While this scene is not impossible, it is highly improbable, particularly in light of Lane’s usual verisimilitude. Large vessels do not generally find enough deep water to anchor close together that near to a rock-bound beach, and even if they did, they probably would not dare. Nor would a cove facing that much open water be calm enough to unload cargo on the beach or to leave a small sloop drifting amongst the rocks. Yet Lane has prominently placed an anchor ring drilled into the foreground rock to secure a stern line, as was common practice when anchoring close to shore: he has not abandoned nautical logic altogether.

What lends the scene an unreal and romantic quality is the luminous, thick light, and the languid motion of the figures, as if they are playing parts on a stage.  Overall, the scene has overtones of a long line of highly romanticized European harbor views from as early as the 1600s (Claude Lorrain, Willem van de Velde, Claude Joseph Vernet and others) that show vessels being unloaded on beaches or wharves. Often, they are classical settings, with temples and other noble architectural ruins, all bathed in golden light. These works almost comprise a sub-genre of marine paintings in their stylized and mostly fictional settings. Lane’s masterfully painted cluster of vessels with their alternating dark and light sails is also a common device used in many European marine paintings, and certainly in many of Lane's works.  

Most fascinating is that in 1852, Lane did at least three paintings with very similar compositions and handling of light, and a fourth undated work is likely from this same year. (Near Reef of Norman's Woe, 1850s (inv. 55), View of Gloucester Harbor, 1852 (inv. 56), Off Mount Desert Island, 1856 (inv. 81)) These works have so much in common, and are enough of a departure from his prior work, that one wonders if Lane saw some European paintings of this sort—whether at an exhibition in Boston or New York, or in one of the English art journals he subscribed to—and decided to try his hand at the genre. We often see Lane do work in series, exploring variations on a subject, composition or theme. These works may be in that vein, and, if so, present a fascinating subject for further research.     

Whatever the genesis, this painting is a masterful display of Lane’s talent for the handling of complex light, and of his use of semi-transparent glazes to integrate an atmosphere across an entire scene.

– Sam Holdsworth


Provenance (Information known to date; research ongoing.)

Maxim Karolik, Newport, R.I.
The Shelburne Museum, Vt., 1959

Exhibition History

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, April, 1954.
M. Knoedler & Co., New York, New York, Commemorative Exhibition of Karolik Private Collection Paintings by Martin J. Heade and Fitz Hugh Lane, May 3–28, 1954., no. 6.
Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Washington, District of Columbia, Nineteenth Century American Paintings, 1815–1865: From the Private Collection of Maxim Karolik, 1954–56.
Traveled to: Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, S.C.; J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Ky.; Lowe Gallery, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Fla.; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pa.; The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Md.; Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Va.; Wilmington Society of Fine Arts, Wilmington, Del.
DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts, Fitz Hugh Lane: The First Major Exhibition, March 20–April 17, 1966., no. 39.
Traveled to: Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, Maine, 30–6, 1966.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, District of Columbia, Paintings by Fitz Hugh Lane, May 15–September 5, 1988., no. 42, ill. in color, p.3 5.
Traveled to: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass., 5–31, 1988.
Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury, Vermont, American Paintings and Works on Paper from Shelburne Museum, February 2–June 6, 2010.

Published References

Baur, John I.H. Commemorative Exhibition: Paintings by Martin Johnson Heade and Fitz Hugh Lane from the Karolik Collections in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. New York: M. Knoedler & Co., 1954. (exhibition brochure)., no. 6. ⇒ includes text
Wittman, Jr., Otto. Nineteenth Century American Paintings, 1815–1865. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1954.
Wilmerding, John. Fitz Hugh Lane, 1804–1865: American Marine Painter. Salem, MA: The Essex Institute, 1964., fig. 9, p. 34.
Wilmerding, John. Fitz Hugh Lane: The First Major Exhibition. Lincoln, MA: De Cordova Museum; in association with Colby College Art Museum, 1966., no. 39. ⇒ includes text
Wilmerding, John. Fitz Hugh Lane. New York: Praeger, 1971.
American Art Review (January–February 1975).
Muller, Nancy C. Paintings and Drawings at the Shelburne Museum. Shelburne, VT: Shelburne Museum, 1976.
Wilmerding, John. Paintings by Fitz Hugh Lane. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art; in association with Harry N. Abrams, 1988., ill. in color, p. 35.
Training the Eye and the Hand: Fitz Hugh Lane and 19th Century Drawing Books. Gloucester, MA: Cape Ann Historical Association, 1993., p. 20, fig. 16.
Novak, Barbara. Nature and Culture: American Landscape Painting, 1825–1875. Revised edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995., no. 117, p.237, Sunrise Through Mist: Pigeon Cove, Gloucester.
Citation: "Sunrise through Mist, 1852 (inv. 98)." Fitz Henry Lane Online. Cape Ann Museum. http://fitzhenrylaneonline.org/catalog/entry.php?id=98 (accessed March 29, 2024).
Record last updated January 27, 2016. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
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