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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. 13
Brig "Cadet" in Gloucester Harbor
late 1840s Oil on canvas 17 1/4 x 25 3/4 in. (43.8 x 65.4 cm) Signed lower left: F H Lane
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Provenance (Information known to date; research ongoing.)
the Artist, Gloucester, Mass.
Captain Edward Babson, Gloucester, Mass., c. late 1840s
Isabel Babson Lane, Gloucester, Mass.
Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass., September 1946
Exhibition History
DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts, Fitz Hugh Lane: The First Major Exhibition, March 20–April 17, 1966., no. 10.
Traveled to: Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, Maine, 30–6, 1966.
Traveled to: Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, Maine, 30–6, 1966.
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 XIV, no. 71. ⇒ includes 
text
text
Wilmerding, John. Fitz Hugh Lane: The First Major Exhibition. Lincoln, MA: De Cordova Museum; in association with Colby College Art Museum, 1966., no. 10. ⇒ includes text
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Wilmerding, John. Paintings by Fitz Hugh Lane. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art; in association with Harry N. Abrams, 1988., fig. 3, ill. in b/w, p. 64.
Training the Eye and the Hand: Fitz Hugh Lane and 19th Century Drawing Books. Gloucester, MA: Cape Ann Historical Association, 1993., ill., p. 27, text, p. 20.
Worley, Sharon. "Fitz Hugh Lane and the Legacy of the Codfish Aristocracy." Historical Journal of Massachusetts 32, no. 1 (Winter 2004)., pp. 60, 77. ⇒ includes text
text
Craig, James. Fitz H. Lane: An Artist's Voyage through Nineteenth-Century America. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2006., fig. 45.
Commentary
In the 1840s, the economy of Gloucester was booming, thanks to the railroad and the Surinam trade. Edward Babson, a Gloucester sea captain and owner of the brig "Cadet," was one of those making money in the trade. By 1836, Edward Babson and his brother John James had become co-owners of the "Cadet," and for the next decade, Edward sailed her back and forth to South America, becoming one of Gloucester’s most successful Surinam trading captains.
Gloucester merchant ships traded salt fish for molasses, the salt fish being destined for slaves, and the molasses for the New England rum business. The round-trip averaged about four months; Edward was a very competitive sailor and took great pride in making his time at sea as short as possible. Below are excerpts of the "Cadet" logbooks and related diaries of the Babson family, a fascinating window into the everyday reality of life at sea.
Edward Babson commissioned Lane to paint his brig, probably sometime in the early 1840s. The ship's portrait was a stock-in-trade for marine painters of the time, usually commissioned just after the vessel was built or came under new ownership. Painting ships' portraits, often for prominent Boston ship owners, was how Lane supported himself in his first years as a painter.
Brig "Cadet" in Gloucester Harbor shows the typical broadside view of the vessel, here in the outer harbor with Ten Pound Island Light in the background to the left. The "Cadet" is flying her name pennant and a long merchant pennant. She is probably outward-bound on a journey to Surinam, but hove to, with her foresails aback. She is perhaps waiting to pick up a pilot from—or deliver a pilot to—the small merchant schooner to the right. The pilot would travel in the dory seen trailing behind the brig.
– Sam Holdsworth