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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. 678
The "Antelope"
Steam Demi Bark Antelope, 615 tons
1855 Oil on canvas 13 5/8 x 22 5/8 in. (34.6 x 57.5 cm)
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Related Work in the Catalog
Provenance (Information known to date; research ongoing.)
The Artist, Gloucester, Massachusetts
Robert Bennett Forbes, and the firm of Russell & Co., Canton, China 1855
F. Murray Forbes, Jr., Chairman of the Museum of the American China Trade, Milton, Mass.
Michael Altman Fine Art, New York
Avery Galleries, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, 2010
Charles Butt, San Antonio, Texas
Exhibition History
Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Massachusetts, Drawn From Nature & on Stone: The Lithographs of Fitz Henry Lane, October 7, 2017–March 4, 2018.
Published References
Barnhill, Trafton. Drawn from Nature & on Stone: the Lithographs of Fitz Henry Lane. Gloucester, MA: Cape Ann Museum, 2017., fig. 66, The "Antelope". ⇒ includes 
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Commentary
This grisaille painting – delicately overtinted in the sea and sky with a mustard earth tone, probably raw sienna – is very likely the image on which Lane’s lithographs, Steam Demi Bark Antelope, c.1855 (inv. 413) and Steam demi bark Antelope, 615 tons, c.1855 (inv. 449) were based. Cloud formations were omitted in the prints, but the treatment of the waves and water are strikingly similar. Only an artist skilled in working in both media could give the sea in this painting a lithographic texture prior to making the lithograph itself.
“Antelope’s” barkentine rig was a novelty in her time, the terms “bark” and “demi-bark” being proposed names for it. The editor of the “U.S. Naval Magazine” even suggested the term “brigantern”, denoting the combination of the brigantine and the tern (three-masted) schooner rigs. In addition, Robert Bennett Forbes’ patent double topsail rig was a feature of the square sails on the fore mast. This vessel employed a careful compromise of sail and steam power, depending equally on both for her trans-Pacific voyages.
Designed by Samuel H. Pook in close collaboration with Forbes, “Antelope” was built in the East Boston shipyard of Samuel Hall, and was intended for the China Trade. She was heavily armed with an 8-inch shell gun and two 32-pound shell guns, all on pivot mounts. Piracy was then rampant on the China coast, requiring armaments to ensure safe passage. “Antelope” was also fitted with a steam pump which could throw hot water a distance of 100 yards to discourage boarders. Metal lifeboats with provisions for self-bailing were also carried.
“Antelope” was in the American ship registers for two years, with no record of her subsequent activity or fate.
–Erik Ronnberg
References:
1. Robert Bennett Forbes, “Personal Reminiscences,” 3rd. ed. revised (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, & Co., 1892), list of vessels (unpaginated).
2. (No author cited; probably John W. Griffiths), “The Japan and China Packet Propeller Antelope,” in “The U.S. Nautical Magazine and Naval Journal” (New York: Griffiths, Bates & Co., Vol. III, 1855-56), pp. 11–17, including a fold-out impression of Lane’s lithograph.
3. Cedric Ridgely-Nevitt, “Auxiliary Steamships and R. B. Forbes” (Salem, MA: “The American Neptune”, Vol. 1), pp. 51–57.