Catalog entry

Commentary

This painting is closely related to Camden Mountains from the South Entrance to the Harbor, 1859 (inv. 214) at the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, Maine, as they appear to made been made from the same drawing Camden Mountains from the South Entrance to Harbor, 1855 (inv. 171) (below). The drawing was made during Lane's 1855 trip to Penobscot Bay with his friend Joseph Stevens, who later noted on it: "from the boat on our return to Rockland."

This Camden Mountains from the South Entrance to the Harbor (alternately titled Off Camden) is a slightly smaller version (18" x 30") of the Farnsworth painting of the same name (below) but is not a direct copy, as it shows subtle but important variations to the composition. It is not known which version was done first; an interesting puzzle is to compare the two, noting the differences and pondering which version might have "improved" upon the original in Lane's eyes.

 Camden Mountains from the South Entrance to the Harbor, 1859 (inv. 214)

Both works have the same gold and brown tonality of the indirect sunset reflections on the water at the entrance to the harbor, and they are taken from the same vantage point. In this version, the sun has not quite set and is lighting up the sails of the lumber schooner and the corner of Negro Island (now Curtis Island). In comparison to the Farnsworth version, the sky is lighter, with more reds and yellows. The Farnsworth version is from a few minutes later; the sun has set and the light is indirect, with an overall duskier palette. 

The vessels have been slightly re-arranged in the two versions. This version shows the two-masted boat in the left foreground (a yawl boat with a schooner rig) with its sails being raised or lowered. The right foreground shows a small double-ended boat (called a "pea pod" and then unique to Maine harbors) rowed by two men;  the Farnsworth version is without the small boat, but a floating log is similarly placed at the same angle.

In front of the lighthouse island, there is a sloop heading to the left that is not in the Farnsworth version; that version has a distant lumber schooner in the shadow of the left-hand island that is not to be found in this version. The larger lumber schooner in the left center of this painting appears in the right center in the Farnsworth painting. The distant steamship, seen in the far right here, is found in the center of the Farnsworth painting.

The evolution of Lane's work over the years shows a consistent simplifying of composition and increasing emphasis on the space and light within a composition. Based on that premise, one could surmise that this painting was done first. It has more vessels leading the eye in multiple directions, while the Farnsworth painting has reduced the number of vessels and moved the main vessel to open up the left center. This leads the eye more directly into the shadows of the harbor entrance and the glowing light below the horizon.

This version of Camden Mountains from the South Entrance to Harbor is undated, but clearly from after 1855 (the date of the drawing). It is consistent with Lane's mature style of the late 1850s. Like many paintings of this period, it may show traces of Lane's student, Mary Mellen, or a possible later restoration in some areas of the main lumber schooner and sails. Overall, it is a beautiful example of Lane's late luminist style, balancing light, composition and space in a vision of serenity captured in a typical moment along the Maine coast.

– Sam Holdsworth

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