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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. 789
Shooting Seabirds
Shooting Shore Birds
c. 1842 Graphite and watercolor 8 1/2 x 10 5/8 in. (21.6 x 27 cm) Signed and dated lower left: Fitz H. Lane
Private collection
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Related Work in the Catalog
Provenance (Information known to date; research ongoing.)
Mrs. George Parker
John S. Chase, Esq.
Andrew & Betsy Wyeth, Chadd's Ford, PA.
Private Collection, New York.
Exhibition History
John Wilmerding, William A. Farnsworth Library and Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, Fitz Hugh Lane 1804-1805, July 12–September 15, 1974., no. 3, ill. in b/w, anonymous lender.
Published References
Fitz Hugh Lane 1804-1865. Rockland, ME: William A. Farnsworth Library and Art Museum, 1974., no. 3.
Commentary
This exquisite early watercolor is one of only several we know by Lane. It is relatively small, 8 ½ inches by 10 ½ inches and is dated 1842. Lane was still working as a lithographer in Boston and is clearly employing those same techniques here with careful outline drawing and literal coloring. At first look it could be mistaken for a hand-colored lithograph. The work is signed on the front and is inscribed on the back, “John S. Chase Esq. Presented by Mr. Geo Parker, March 21, 1842.”
The site is likely a view from the Magnolia shore on the west side of Gloucester’s outer harbor looking east across to the Eastern Point lighthouse and the open ocean beyond. There is a wonderful primitive quality to the scale and perspective of the boats and the stylized drawing of the breaking waves. Lane has given equal emphasis to all elements of the composition, and while the coloring is quite literal he has created a lovely harmony with the various blues employed across the composition. It is a calm and jewel-like work with the innocent charm of 1840’s America.
Lane’s growth in sophistication over time is clearly evident in a very similar scene from the same coast eleven years later, Rafes Chasm, 1853 (inv. 597). Here the drama of the sky and sea is rendered in Turner-like explosions of foam and sunlight nearly obscuring the small figure of the hunter in the foreground.
–Sam Holdsworth