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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. 216
Brookbank, The Sawyer Homestead
Sawyer Homestead
1860 Oil on canvas 23 1/2 x 40 in. (59.7 x 101.6 cm)
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Related Work in the Catalog
Supplementary Images
Provenance (Information known to date; research ongoing.)
Samuel E. Sawyer Art Collection
Exhibition History
DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts, Fitz Hugh Lane: The First Major Exhibition, March 20–April 17, 1966., no. 46.
Traveled to: Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, Maine, 30–6, 1966.
Traveled to: Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, Maine, 30–6, 1966.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, District of Columbia, Paintings by Fitz Hugh Lane, May 15–September 5, 1988., no. 14, ill., p.42, Sawyer Homestead.
Traveled to: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass., 5–31, 1988.
Traveled to: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass., 5–31, 1988.
Published References
Wilmerding, John. Fitz Hugh Lane: The First Major Exhibition. Lincoln, MA: De Cordova Museum; in association with Colby College Art Museum, 1966., no. 46. ⇒ includes 
text
text
Wilmerding, John. Paintings by Fitz Hugh Lane. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art; in association with Harry N. Abrams, 1988., ill. in col. p.42 cat.14, Sawyer Homestead.
Craig, James. Fitz H. Lane: An Artist's Voyage through Nineteenth-Century America. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2006., pl. 21.
Commentary
This painting shows Samuel Sawyer's house, Brookbank, at Freshwater Cove, the landmark flagpole on top of the hill above the house, many vessels in the harbor, and a glimpse of the Fort and town of Gloucester behind. In the foreground is a two-wheeled cart, of the type commonly used in the period. Sawyer made several architectural changes to his house—in this painting the house does not have the dormers he later added. Sawyer was a Gloucester and Boston businessman and philantropist, including his support of the Gloucester Lyceum, which became the Sawyer Free Library. He was also an art collector and often supported Lane. It is too bad that more is not known about his purchase of this painting, which was presumabably a commission of his house and property.
In 1856 Sawyer recorded in his expense account that he paid $100 for "Lane Homestead" and $21 for a frame at Boston framer and art dealer, William Y. Balch.
– Martha Oaks