Catalog entry

Commentary

 

The merchant bark “Mary” (268 register tons) was built at Medford, Massachusetts in 1844 by Foster & Taylor for Nathaniel Francis of Boston. This is a classic example of a formal ship portrait of the period, before Lane gave more original compositions to this genre. The vessel is depicted in strict profile under all plain sail in moderate seas with storm clouds approaching. A distant vessel at left, barely visible land at right, and three gulls (rarely depicted in a Lane vessel portrait) complete the scene. The detailed, accurate rigging and careful juxtaposition of color and values, particularily in the relationship between sea and clouds, makes this painting stand out from the usual vessel portraits of the day.

An interesting detail in this painting is the vessel’s ironwork, namely her anchor and the chain plates which secure the deadeyes and shrouds to the hull. Ships’ ironwork was usually primed with red lead, which was a dull red and often painted over to be less conspicuous. On some ships the opposite approach was taken and a bright red was used, if for no other reason than to relieve the monotony of a highly standardized color scheme.

Conservators’ infrared photographs of the painting reveal underdrawing typical of Lane’s vessel portraits, with full detailing of spars, rigging, and sail outlines (below). The differences in rigging leads between “as drawn” and “as painted” are negligible, virtually all other details follow the drawing exactly.

In this painting, in addition to the American flag (or ensign), “Mary” flies Elford’s telegraphic signal flags from her mizen topmast with code numbers 2, 5, 1, and 3 from top to bottom (5). Her name pennant flies at the main mast head and the Union Jack at the fore mast head.

The vessel’s construction was overseen by her master, a Captain Hopner, who commanded her for the three years under Francis’ ownership (1). Other accounts and records of this vessel differ considerably. Hall Gleason states that she was sold to New York parties, and in 1854 on a run from New Orleans to Stockholm, she was wrecked on Los Colorados Reef, Cuba on September, 1854, and burned (2). In Cutler’s history of American packet ships, “Mary” (268 tons) is listed as a “ship” (not a bark) under the management of the Packet Line of Boston in 1847 with Nathaniel Francis as master (3). In his six-volume treatise, “Merchant Sail,” William Armstrong Fairburn listed 58 vessels with the name “Mary,” none of them having the combination of rig, tonnage, and building date matching the “Mary” depicted by Lane (4). Her “official” records appear to have been lost.

–Erik Ronnberg

References:

1. Nathaniel Francis, “Sketch of Reminiscences of Former Years Requested by Nathaniel Francis, Son of the Author” (Boston: Typescript copy of probable manuscript, April 19, 1867).

2. Hall Gleason, “Old Ships and Ship-Building Days of Medford, 1630-1873” (West Medford, MA: published by the author, 1936), p. 66.

3. Carl C. Cutler, “Queens of the Western Ocean” (Annapolis, MD: U.S. Naval Institute Press, 1961), p. 449.

4. William Armstrong Fairburn, “Merchant Sail” (Center Lovell, ME: Fairburn Marine Educational Foundation, 1945-1955. Reprint: Gloucester, MA: Ten Pound Island Book Co., 1992). See index of vessels, Vol. 6.

5. M.V. Brewington, ‘Signal Systems and Ship Identification’ (Salem. MA: ,“The American Neptune”, Vol. iii, No. 3, July, 1943), pp. 211-215.

Supplementary Images