Catalog entry

Commentary

Sunrise through Mist diverges from Lane’s typically clear-eyed depiction of place and events, and presents a highly romantic, somewhat fantastical view of an early-morning coast with the sun breaking through the mist. The coast is unidentified; possibly we are in Maine, based on the rocky bluff at the end of the cove.

A group of men load their dories and chat on the beach as they prepare to launch, while the man on the right approaches a small sloop that floats amongst the rocks on the shore. A lighter approaches the beach with a cargo off-loaded from the cluster of larger vessels gathered just off the beach. The sun breaks through a heavy mist, casting a pink blanket of humidity across the whole scene. There is an overlying feeling of torpor, as if the very thickness of the light has slowed all activity to a standstill.

While this scene is not impossible, it is highly improbable, particularly in light of Lane’s usual verisimilitude. Large vessels do not generally find enough deep water to anchor close together that near to a rock-bound beach, and even if they did, they probably would not dare. Nor would a cove facing that much open water be calm enough to unload cargo on the beach or to leave a small sloop drifting amongst the rocks. Yet Lane has prominently placed an anchor ring drilled into the foreground rock to secure a stern line, as was common practice when anchoring close to shore: he has not abandoned nautical logic altogether.

What lends the scene an unreal and romantic quality is the luminous, thick light, and the languid motion of the figures, as if they are playing parts on a stage.  Overall, the scene has overtones of a long line of highly romanticized European harbor views from as early as the 1600s (Claude Lorrain, Willem van de Velde, Claude Joseph Vernet and others) that show vessels being unloaded on beaches or wharves. Often, they are classical settings, with temples and other noble architectural ruins, all bathed in golden light. These works almost comprise a sub-genre of marine paintings in their stylized and mostly fictional settings. Lane’s masterfully painted cluster of vessels with their alternating dark and light sails is also a common device used in many European marine paintings, and certainly in many of Lane's works.  

Most fascinating is that in 1852, Lane did at least three paintings with very similar compositions and handling of light, and a fourth undated work is likely from this same year. (Near Reef of Norman's Woe, 1850s (inv. 55), View of Gloucester Harbor, 1852 (inv. 56), Off Mount Desert Island, 1856 (inv. 81)) These works have so much in common, and are enough of a departure from his prior work, that one wonders if Lane saw some European paintings of this sort—whether at an exhibition in Boston or New York, or in one of the English art journals he subscribed to—and decided to try his hand at the genre. We often see Lane do work in series, exploring variations on a subject, composition or theme. These works may be in that vein, and, if so, present a fascinating subject for further research.     

Whatever the genesis, this painting is a masterful display of Lane’s talent for the handling of complex light, and of his use of semi-transparent glazes to integrate an atmosphere across an entire scene.

– Sam Holdsworth