An online project under the direction of the CAPE ANN MUSEUM
Welcome to Fitz Henry Lane OnlineFitz Henry Lane Online is a freely-accessible interactive and interdisciplinary online resource created by the Cape Ann Museum. The website is organized around a catalog of the paintings, drawings, and lithographs of nineteenth-century American painter Fitz Henry Lane (1804–1865). The Cape Ann Museum, located in Gloucester, Massachusetts (Lane’s birthplace and home for most of his life) has the world’s largest collection of Lane’s paintings, drawings, lithographs, and related material. The website is intended to provide information of interest to a broad audience, and to serve as a resource for information and analysis of Lane’s work. The website focuses on both the formal, aesthetic qualities and provides detailed information on the historical context of his pictures. For more see About the Project. News:
Unfurling Fitz Henry LaneUnfurling Fitz Henry Lane from Cape Ann Museum on Vimeo. Unknown Lane Watercolor Discovered at an Auction in Belgium
This work is a recent discovery as of 2022, a slightly smaller watercolor version of the dynamic small oil, Three Master in Rough Seas, 1856 (inv. 4), in the collection of the Cape Ann Museum. This painting was acquired at a recent auction in Belgium as an unknown work. Gallery labels on the back show that it was at some point sold through the Max Bine Gallery in Paris which was active from 1914–1930. Lane did very few watercolors; we have not seen him use the medium as preparatory works for oils where one would expect a looser technique as he worked out ideas. The brushwork here is very precise and he doesn’t use washes or scumbles as is typical in preparatory works. He appears to be copying his oil original as the composition and details precisely follow the oil painting. |
Explore works in the Catalog using the Interactive Feature![]()
Gloucester Harbor from Rocky Neck, 1844 (inv. 14)
Collection: Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass., Gift of Mrs. Jane Parker Stacy (Mrs. George O. Stacy), 1948 (1289.1a) ![]()
Harbor of Boston, with the City in the Distance, c.1846–47 (inv. 88)
Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund and partial gift of Travers Newton, Joanna Newton Riccardi, and Georgia Newton Pulos (2004.35) ![]()
Brig "Antelope" in Boston Harbor, 1863 (inv. 43)
Collection: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Bequest of Martha C. Karolik for the M. and M. Karolik Collection of American Paintings, 1815–1865 (48.449) ![]()
New York Harbor, c.1855 (inv. 46)
Collection: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Gift of Maxim Karolik for the M. and M. Karolik Collection of American Paintings, 1815–1865 (48.446) ![]()
Stage Rocks and Western Shore of Gloucester Outer Harbor, 1857 (inv. 348)
Collection: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., John Wilmerding Collection, Promised Gift ![]()
Gloucester Harbor, 1847 (inv. 23)
Collection: Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass., Gift of Estate of Samuel H. Mansfield, 1949 (1332.20) ![]()
Three Master on the Gloucester Railways, 1857 (inv. 29)
Collection: Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass., Deposited by the City of Gloucester, 1952 (DEP. 202) » Browse all the works in the catalog. » Browse works by type: » See Fitz Henry Lane works on view at the Cape Ann Museum Historical MaterialsDorothy Little Stevens to F. H. Lane, Castine, 10.16.1851 Historical Materials: 1859 Cape Ann Advertiser 12.2.1859 Historical Materials: Subscription List and Mailing for "Castine, From Hospital Island" 1855 Historical Materials: First Order Fresnel Lens for Thacher Island lighthouse beacon Historical Materials: 1851 Map of the Towns of Gloucester and Rockport (detail showing wharves) Historical Materials: Browse all Historical Materials » About Fitz Henry LaneEducational Resources |





