Catalog entry

Commentary

This fascinating little painting is the only verified, signed collaboration between Lane and his student Mary Mellen. Lane appears to have been lending his hand to a Mellen painting, not vice versa. An invented landscape is an atypical composition for Lane, but not for Mellen—at least not based on her later work. The infrared scan (below) further supports the hypothesis that this is a Mellen composition: there is no visible pencil underdrawing. This was unusual for Lane, though common for Mellen.

The sky appears all Lane: it has a beautiful subtle gradation across its spectrum from blue through pink to the yellow at the horizon. It has real depth and envelops the distant island and the water in a hazy glow. Mellen herself struggled to produce this level of subtlety.

The rock cliffs framing the central water are a Mellen motif; they're very common in her later work, as is the manner in which the rocks are built up with alternating brushstrokes—particularly noticeable in the infrared scan. Yet the color is nicely varied in both the rocks and the foreground foliage and is well tuned to the sky. 

This is an intensely romantic painting; it's almost a confection in its golden glow and the carefully framed cliffs that surround the placid water. The round format only accentuates the romantic quality. A smartly dressed man is poling a little sailing craft with slack sails towards an apparent landing. One imagines that a young woman will alight and that there will be a picnic, perhaps with some poetry read aloud on a blanket in the slumberous, idyllic light. This hypothetical storyline would have been in keeping with the sentimental engravings and commercial art of the era. The painting is reminiscent of that aesthetic. 

In other works by Lane where we see stylistic evidence of Mellen’s hand, she has painted the sky, waves, or rocks in the manner of Lane, acting as his assistant and emulating his style, albeit not as skillfully. She also did direct copies of his work during his lifetime, often in multiples. We do not know when she started doing her own compositions, whether during Lane’s lifetime or afterwards. 

This painting, Coast of Maine, is a successful collaboration, regardless of who did what. One wonders how it came to be, and if there are any others like it. It presents a fascinating window into a working relationship between Lane and Mellen about which we know too little—as yet.

– Sam Holdsworth

Supplementary Images

Verso shows barely legible signatures F H Lane and M. B. Mellen painted in green.

Photo: Alison Anholt
© Cape Ann Museum

This infrared image of the Coast of Maine has very brushy paint application and lacks the underdrawi... [more]ng that typically is seen under the paint layer in Lane's compositions. – Marcia Steele

Photo: J. Neubecker, Cleveland Museum of Art
© Cape Ann Museum