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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. 267
Merchantmen Off Boston Harbor
1853 Oil on canvas 24 1/4 x 39 1/4 in. (61.6 x 99.7 cm) Signed and dated lower right: F.H. Lane / 1853
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Provenance (Information known to date; research ongoing.)
Maxim Karolik, Newport, R.I.
The Shelburne Museum, Vt., 1957
Exhibition History
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.
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.
Published References
Wittman, Jr., Otto. Nineteenth Century American Paintings, 1815–1865. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1954.
Antiques (November 1960)., p. 455.
The American Neptune, Pictorial Supplement VII: A Selection of Marine Paintings by Fitz Hugh Lane, 1804–1865. Salem, MA: The American Neptune, 1965., plate XXVII, no. 108. ⇒ includes 
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Wilmerding, John. Fitz Hugh Lane. New York: Praeger, 1971.
Muller, Nancy C. Paintings and Drawings at the Shelburne Museum. Shelburne, VT: Shelburne Museum, 1976., no. 113.
Commentary
Although titled as a view of shipping activity in Boston Harbor, the nondescript skyline bears no resemblance to those in Lane’s other titled depictions of that port. The latter have very recognizable skyline features, the most familiar being the Massachusetts State House. Moreover, the skyline appears more distant, as is Manhattan’s West Side when seen from the New Jersey side of the Hudson River.
Vessel activity in this painting could be representative of either city. At left, a harbor tug (an early example for Boston but commonplace for New York) is taking a lumber brig to a wharf for unloading. The lumber brig’s deck load is of interest for the very heavy dimensions of the timber, which would be suitable for framing large buildings or decks of wharves. Just beyond is a small coasting schooner, sailing light, having unloaded, and likely headed to another pier for new cargo or for hauling-out and maintenance. Off her port quarter is a merchant ship, and beyond her, a coastal side-wheel steamer of smaller size, built for transporting people and small-quantity goods to and from smaller coastal ports along the Long Island and Connecticut shores.
In the right foreground, a packet ship whose very large size is more typical of New York vessels in this trade, is about to be boarded—probably by some of the ship’s officers. She is riding high and her sails are hanging in loose bights to air out while she waits for a tug to bring her to a loading port. Any Boston equivalents of this size would have had trouble finding sufficient cargos to operate at a profit. New York’s advantage was her access to high-value inland produce via the Hudson River, the Erie Canal, and other waterway connections. Beyond the packet and to the left of her stern is a merchant ship at anchor. To the right are a bark and a coasting schooner, the former being suited for long voyages when speed was not a necessity.
– Erik Ronnberg