Catalog entry

Commentary

From the perspective of Duncan's Neck, this drawing shows Gloucester's Inner Harbor. Ten Pound Island and the lighthouse are to the left, while George Rogers's large commercial building, his rapidly expanding wharf, and the windmill, which had recently been moved here from its original location near Pavilion Beach, are just to the right of the center of the composition. The architectural element behind Rogers's building is most likely the Fort.

Lane used three pieces of paper to compose this drawing, which served as a sketch for Gloucester Inner Harbor, 1850 (inv. 240). The notable difference between the two pictures is the absence of vessels in the drawing. This is typical of Lane's drawings—he often recorded only the landscape features in his pencil drawings or in the underdrawings of paintings, adding the vessels in the final stages. That he intended to add the fleet of fishing schooners present in the painting is indicated, however, by the diagonal perspective lines in this drawing, which would help him to represent the vessels in the proper proportions.

This drawing is also useful in the way in which it shows the development of George H. Rogers's wharf. Rogers was a merchant and owner of a great deal of the waterfront. He was known for the huge wharf he constructed in the Inner Harbor. In this drawing it is under construction—a derrick used to drive wharf pilings can be seen behind the left side of the wharf. Erik Ronnberg has documented the growth of the harbor and Rogers's wharves in an essay for the Cape Ann Museum.

The three sheets of paper are glued together to make a drawing surface 9 1/2” high by 34 3/4” wide. The drawing's width is almost exactly the same as the bottom of the painting, which measures 36". A horizon line was drawn over the assembled sheet’s whole width (it can be seen over its whole length under magnification). Pin pricks were made every 4 1/16” on this line—seven in all, dividing the sheet into eight equal segments. The care taken in this process raises questions over what kind of viewing device Lane was using to warrant this effort and that permitted such remarkable accuracy in his placement of landmarks and buildings. To date, nothing has been found regarding Lane’s training or use of viewing instruments for this purpose, which should prompt examination of the kinds of tools and methods then available.

If Lane’s accuracy of proportion and detail in man-made structures is impressive, it is no less so in his renderings of the natural surroundings. The rock formations along the foreground shoreline are carried over stone-for-stone to the painting, implying his intent on rendering the whole scene exactly as he saw it. Without all the vessels included in the painting, it is possible to look out to the entrance to Gloucester Harbor and see many coastal features lining both sides.

A Visual Guide to the Painting

1. The northeastern end of Rocky Neck and its extension, Black Rock, which was exposed at low tide.
2. Eastern Point, the lighthouse of which is just beyond the drawing’s left margin (which was trimmed at some unknown date prior to its donation to Cape Ann Museum).
3. Black Ledge, which lies between Rocky Neck and Ten Pound Island and is exposed at low tide.
4. Ten Pound Island and its lighthouse.
5. Norman’s Woe Rock.
6. Dolliver’s Neck.
7. Stone bulkhead pier at the southeast corner of George H. Rogers’s wharf. At the time of drawing, this part of the wharf was incomplete, awaiting a timber wharf extension on spiles (pilings) to be built out from it.
8. Atop the bulkhead pier, a pile-driving hammer is setting fender spiles along the side that faces the Outer Harbor.
9. The east side of Rogers’s wharf, showing the completed part of the timber wharf extension.
10. Ignatius Webber’s windmill, moved from the site of the Pavilion Hotel, which was then under construction.
11. Fort Defiance (remains of).
12. Bulkhead pier (cob wharf construction) between the wharves of George H. Rogers and John. W. Lowe.
13. Wharf and buildings of John W. Lowe.
14. Pavilion Beach—still used as a flake yard occupied by fishermen’s shacks and fish flakes (fish drying racks).
15. Wharf of the estate of I. J. Procter.

– Erik Ronnberg

Related Work in the Catalog

Supplementary Images

Proposed viewpoint of Lane when creating the drawing. Viewpoint plottings by Erik Ronnberg using U.S... [more]. Coast Survey sketch chart of Gloucester Harbor 1855.