Catalog entry

Commentary

 It is unlikely that this port scene depicts Gloucester Harbor for two important reasons: (1) No wharf in Gloucester had the shoreline setting and wharf construction in the combination shown, and (2) The sun does not rise over the harbor’s entrance, which opens to the south-southwest. Some have argued that Lane “altered” rising and setting suns’ positions to some extent in some port scenes, but it is doubtful that Lane and his clients would have tolerated such an extreme liberty with Gloucester Harbor.

Assuming Lane had a specific locale in mind, a more likely setting for this painting would have been an east-facing New England harbor, such as Portsmouth, New Hampshire or Portland, Maine, both of which Lane visited and which were large and deep enough to accommodate the large packet ship (at anchor, drying sail) at left. That vessel alone argues sufficiently for a larger, deeper harbor, and both Portland and Portsmouth had busy urban centers with rural surroundings along adjacent shore lines, as depicted here.

On the beach is a dory of the type used in the New England shore fisheries. Lane’s customary attention to hull form and detail (in this case the run of the hull planking) brings out the elegant geometry of this workaday boat. At right, a cart with a barrel (fish bait?) on board is drawn by a horse so accustomed to the route, the driver can follow. The wharf is an interesting combination of spile and stone block construction, the latter too neatly fashioned to be mistaken for a cob wharf. At its far side, a small sloop is tied up, its sails hanging to dry.

Surrounding the packet ship are a sloop and two schooners, all likely to be in the coastal packet trades. At far right is a merchant brig at anchor, drying sail, and a half brig crossing her bow. Other vessels, and possibly a light house, are in the distance, obscured by mist, much like the artist’s reason for painting this scene.

—Erik Ronnberg