Catalog entry

Commentary

The lack of wind and calm conditions of this early morning scene are apparent in the efforts being made by the crew of the two classic New England boats to get out into clear water where they will be able to get some wind in their sails. The vessel in the immediate foreground is being pushed off the beach by one crewmember while the other crewmember poles off the shore. Similarly, the more distant New England boat is being rowed with sweeps (long oars) as the crew unfurls the foresail, the other sail hanging loosely in the calm air.

As Erik Ronnberg has observed in conversation, “The watercraft in this painting are of interest, particularly the two-masted double-ended boats called New England boats. Descendants of colonial shallops, they were commonly used in the shore fisheries throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. This is one of Lane's earliest depictions of the type, which reappears in several of his Gloucester Harbor scenes over the years, and in progressive states of deterioration.”

Sails further out in the bay seem to be catching a bit more breeze, and the mackerel fleet can be seen on the horizon, heading for the distant fishing grounds of George’s Bank. A fisherman is hauling in the gill net he set the night before, hoping for a rich catch of herring or mackerel. A brig ghosts along in the middle distance, also trying to catch a breath of the elusive wind to propel it offshore as it departs Cape Ann for distant lands.

The jaunty, anecdotal character typical of Lane’s early work is captured in the farmer with horse and cart bringing his carrots to market; the driver is depicted very realistically, for Lane, whose figures are usually fairly secondary to his compositions. The strong horizontal of the road in the foreground with the solid horse and cart catches the eye initially; then the composition directs the eye to the poling fisherman to the right; from there to the rocks on the tip of Crow Island, glowing in the summer morning sun; and finally off to the bright sails of the fishing fleet, glinting on the far horizon. In the center of the canvas is Baker’s Island, which then had twin lights (“Ma and Pa Baker”). “Ma Baker” was later dismantled, leaving the light that is still there today.

The similarity between the Baker Island lights and the famous twin lighthouses of Thacher's Island may be the reason for the (incorrect) alternate title of Good Harbor Beach, Cape Ann. Lane clearly spent some time sketching in Manchester, as shown in several drawings; the one most similar to this painting is From West Manchester Shore, 1850s (inv. 162) which shows Baker's Island from a slightly different perspective. His patron Robert Bennet Forbes built a summer house in West Manchester in the area known as Newport Beach, which is depicted in one of Lane's drawings, View from Newport Beach near Manchester (inv. 165).

This is a delightfully detailed and evocative work, all the more enjoyable through its nostalgic depiction of an identifiable piece of Cape Ann from an earlier era.

– Alison Anholt-White

Related Work in the Catalog

Supplementary Images

Viewpoint map showing Lane's location when making this image

Viewpoint map showing Lane's location when making this image

Present-day view of Kettle Cove, with Baker's Island in view, Manchester, Mass.

Photo: © Alison Anholt-White