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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. 242
Boston Harbor, Sunset
Boston Harbor at Sunset
1850–55 Oil on canvas 24 x 39 1/4 in. (61 x 99.7 cm) No inscription found
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Related Work in the Catalog
Supplementary Images
Infrared image (detail)
Photo: Marcia Steele
© Cleveland Museum of Art
© Cleveland Museum of Art
Infrared image (detail)
Photo: Marcia Steele
© Cleveland Museum of Art
© Cleveland Museum of Art
Infrared image (detail)
Photo: Marcia Steele
© Cleveland Museum of Art
© Cleveland Museum of Art
Infrared image (detail)
Photo: Marcia Steele
© Cleveland Museum of Art
© Cleveland Museum of Art
Infrared mosaic overall image
Photo: Marcia Steele
© Cleveland Museum of Art
© Cleveland Museum of Art
Provenance (Information known to date; research ongoing.)
Mrs. Malcolm E. (Helen Miller) Smith and Mrs. William (Katherine C. Miller) Hoffman, Rhineback, N.Y.
Sotheby Parke Bernet Galleries, New York, April 14, 1962, lot 185
Kennedy Galleries, New York
Mr. and Mrs. Bronson Trevor, 1976
Jo Ann and Julian Ganz, Jr., 1976
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2008
Exhibition History
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, Three Centuries of American Painting, April 9–October 17, 1965., collection of Mr. and Mrs. Bronson Trevor.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, District of Columbia, An American Perspective: Nineteenth-Century Art from the Collection of Jo Ann and Julian Ganz, Jr., October 4, 1981–January 31, 1982.
Traveled to: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, Calif., 6–26, 1982; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Tex., 19–22, 1982.
Traveled to: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, Calif., 6–26, 1982; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Tex., 19–22, 1982.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, A New World: Masterpieces of American Painting, 1760–1910, September 7–November 13, 1983.
Traveled to: Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 6, 1983–12, 1984; Grand Palais, Paris, France, 16–11, 1984.
Traveled to: Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 6, 1983–12, 1984; Grand Palais, Paris, France, 16–11, 1984.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, District of Columbia, Paintings by Fitz Hugh Lane, May 15–September 5, 1988., no. 25, ill. in color, 50, Boston Harbor at Sunset.
Traveled to: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass., 5–31, 1988.
Traveled to: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass., 5–31, 1988.
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, Counterpoint: Two Centuries of American Masters, April 21–June 28, 1990., Boston Harbor, Sunset.
Published References
Wilmerding, John. Fitz Hugh Lane, 1804–1865: American Marine Painter. Salem, MA: The Essex Institute, 1964., no. 21, p. 55.
Feld, Stuart P. "Loan Collection." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (23 April 1965)., ill., p. 289.
Wilmerding, John. Fitz Hugh Lane. New York: Praeger, 1971., p. 75.
"An American Perspective: Nineteenth Century Art from the Collection of Jo Ann and Julian Ganz Jr." Antiques (January 1982)., ill., p. 260.
Jacques Michel. "America in Paris." Le Monde (March 29, 1984).
Time (January 23, 1984)., ill., p. 65.
Dara Mitchell. The Water's Edge. New York: Alexander Gallery, 1985.
Art News (September 1985)., p. 98.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987., fig. 110, ill., p. 17, text, p. 17.
Wilmerding, John. American Marine Painting. 2nd ed. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987., fig. 106, ill., p. 116, text, p. 118.
Addams Allen, Jane. "A Luminary Among Luminists." The Washington Times, May 16, 1988.
Antiques (May 1988)., p. 102.
Dorsey, John. "Lithographer to Luminist." The Baltimore Sun, May 22, 1988.
Kane, Mary Louise. "Paintings by Fitz Hugh Lane." Antiques and the Arts Weekly (August 19, 1988)., ill., p. 75, text, pp. 1, 74–75.
Wilson, William. "A Breath of Fresh Light on Yankee Capitalism." Los Angeles Times, July 10, 1988.
Kelly, Franklin. "The Paintings of Fitz Hugh Lane." Antiques 134 (July 1988)., ills., cover and pl. X, p. 125, text, p. 119.
Wilmerding, John. Paintings by Fitz Hugh Lane. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art; in association with Harry N. Abrams, 1988., no. 25, ills. in color, pp. 46 (detail), 50, Boston Harbor at Sunset.
Counterpoint: Two Centuries of American Masters. New York: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, 1990., ill., p. 15, text, pp. 14–15.
Munchnic, Suzanne. "A Delicate Courtship." Los Angeles Times, October 7, 1990., ill., text, pp. 94–95.
George Caleb Bingham. Saint Louis, Mo.: Saint Louis Art Museum, 1990., pp. 178, 180, 188 (n. 100).
Wilson, William. "Watching LACMA Grow." Los Angeles Times, October 21, 1990., p. 91.
Wilson, William. "A World of Philanthrophy." Los Angeles Times, October 19, 1990., p. F22.
Wilmerding, John. American Views: Essays on American Art. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991., pl. 14, ill. in color, p.157, fig. 113, p. 174, text, pp. 102, 174, 190, 339 (n. 10).
Gaehtgens, Thomas W., and Heinz Ickstadt. American Icons: Transatlantic Perspectives on Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century American Art. Santa Monica, CA: Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1992., p. 72.
Novak, Barbara. "Self, Time, and Object in American Art: Copley, Lane and Homer." In American Icons: Transatlantic Perspectives on Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century American Art, edited by Thomas W. Gaehtgens and Heinz Ickstadt. Santa Monica, CA: Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1992., no. 4, ill., p. 72, text, pp. 71, 80.
Davis, Elliot Bostwick. "Fitz Hugh Lane and John Gadsby Chapman's American Drawing Book." Antiques (November 1993)., p. 707.
Conron, John. American Picturesque. College Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000.
Newton, Travers, and Marcia Steele. "The Series Paintings of Fitz Henry Lane: From Field Sketch to Studio Painting." In Emil Bosshard, Paintings Conservator (1945–2006): Essays by Friends and Colleagues, edited by Maria de Peverelli, Mario Grassi, and Hans-Christoph von Imhoff. Florence: Centro Di, 2009, pp. 194–215., fig. 4, p. 199, Boston Harbor at Sunset. ⇒ includes 
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Commentary
Boston Harbor was a regular subject for Lane from at least 1847 through the late 1850s. It was an obvious subject for the marine painter who had lived and worked in various lithography studios overlooking the harbor and whose first Boston patrons were all involved in the maritime trades. The range of Lane’s Boston Harbor works over the years is fascinating. (See Earl A. Powell’s essay “The Boston Harbor Pictures” and, for example, Boston Harbor, 1856 (inv. 203) and Harbor of Boston, with the City in the Distance, c.1846–47 (inv. 88).) The influence of Robert Salmon is particularly strong in the early works, which are typically crowded scenes of intense activity, with the wind, clouds, and waves creating repeating patterns of movement that show the energy and ambition of the great port at its peak.
This painting, owned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and its companion Boston Harbor, c.1850 (inv. 48) at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (MFA) must be treated together as they are fully developed variants on the same composition. They create a very different impression than Lane’s earlier Boston Harbor works. Here the subject is the hanging moment between day and night, between wind and calm, light and shadow, sails set and furled, boats entering and leaving, the enormity of the vessels and the smallness of man. Lane is in full mastery of his medium. In conception and execution these paintings go well beyond his previous harbor scenes. He has transformed a typical genre subject of vessels in a crowded harbor into poems of stillness, silence, and light, all hung on the geometric armature of the magnificent vessels and their alignment to the sun setting over the still harbor. Lane has taken the view as if one is low on the water in a small boat just behind the two men rowing into the path of the sunset, emphasizing the sheer mass of the great hulls and soaring height of sails and spars looming over them. The ships have seemingly transformed into enormous sentient beings of a mute order as they align themselves along a processional corridor, parting to let the rays of the setting sun reflect off the water and fill the viewer’s field of vision.
Boston Harbor, c.1850 (inv. 48)
Oil on canvas, 26 x 42 in. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, M. and M. Karolik
Collection of American Paintings, 1815–1865, by exchange (66.339)
The two paintings need to be seen together to appreciate the extent of Lane’s mastery of the subtle variations of sunset color and reflection in the two works, one keyed in shades of blue and yellow, the other in pinks, oranges, and browns. Also compare the organization of the great full-rigged merchant and packet ships that dominate the composition. In the MFA painting the ship on the right is facing the sunset, and the brig on the left with all sails set is facing the viewer. In the LACMA painting the order has been reversed, though they are different ships. Note also the ship on the right has all sails set, and the ship’s sails on the left are partially furled, another reversal of the MFA painting. In both paintings there are a surprising number of vessels (more in the MFA picture), yet both paintings feel spacious and almost empty in the reverential calm and order they evoke.
Both paintings can be dated sometime after 1853 as that was the year the steeple of the First Baptist Church was completed, shown just to the right of the State House dome on the horizon. The paintings were probably not done as companions for a single buyer as they are of a slightly different size. However, it’s hard to imagine Lane didn’t have both in his studio at the same time as he fully engaged in the variations on his theme. This author’s guess is he did the MFA painting first with its greater number of vessels, particularly those in the foreground. Following the reductive theme we see over Lane’s whole career, he then reduced the vessel numbers, simplified the foreground, and emphasized the direction of the composition by having the rowers align to the sunset. Note the vessel on the very far left in the MFA picture is angled away from the sunset; in the LACMA picture it is now pointed towards the sunset. Also note how Lane has tilted the lower yard arm of the far left vessel in the LACMA picture, creating a tension not present in the strict horizontals of the yard arms in the MFA work. The flawless palette shift to a dominant blue and yellow in the LACMA painting from the pinks and oranges of the MFA work is a further example of Lane’s full engagement and mastery of his medium. He is never content to copy but is always pushing the boundary of what he could do with a scene, here with extraordinary effect.
– Sam Holdsworth