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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. 349
Brace's Rock, Eastern Point, Gloucester
Brace's Rock
c. 1863–64 Oil on canvas 14 1/2 x 20 in. (36.8 x 50.8 cm) No inscription found
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Commentary
This painting is very similar to the Cape Ann Museum's Brace's Rock, 1864 (inv. 37), though it is somewhat larger at 14 1/2 x 20 in. The composition is identical except for the slightly lowered horizon line and the shipwreck, which in this version is heading towards shore with more of its hull exposed, but without a visible deckhouse.
The foreground shows a similar mix and positioning of foliage and rock, but here Lane has expanded the foreground vertically, made the boulders more prominent, brightened the red and yellow leaves and connected the bushes on the lower right to the reef of boulders leading to the shipwreck.
The colors are equally jewellike and the atmosphere and time of day are identical to the other paintings. Many nineteenth-century painters did copies of their work, often quite exact. It is interesting to note that Lane, even in his last days, was not content to copy but varied the elements just enough to keep his interest and to improve on each version.
– Sam Holdsworth
Related Work in the Catalog
Supplementary Images
Photo: Cleveland Museum of Art
© National Gallery of Art
© National Gallery of Art
X-ray image of back of frame
Photo: Cleveland Museum of Art
© National Gallery of Art
© National Gallery of Art
Provenance (Information known to date; research ongoing.)
Michael Lemon, Boston
Harvey F. Additon, Boston, 1944
Robert B. Campbell, Boston, 1944
Childs Gallery, Boston, 1944
Victor Spark, New York, 1944
Maxim Karolik, Newport, R.I., by 1949
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
John Wilmerding, 1966
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Exhibition History
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, American Painting, 1815–1865: One Hundred and Fifty Paintings from the M. and M. Karolik Collection in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1957., no. 113.
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, The Natural Paradise: Painting in America 1800–1950, October 1–November 30, 1976., ill., frontispiece.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, District of Columbia, American Masters from Bingham to Eakins: The John Wilmerding Collection, May 9–October 10, 2004., no. 22.
Cape Ann Historical Museum, Gloucester, Massachusetts, The Mysteries of Fitz Henry Lane, July 7–September 16, 2007., no. 49, ill., p. 102.
Traveled to: Spanierman Gallery, New York, N.Y., 4–1, 2007.
Traveled to: Spanierman Gallery, New York, N.Y., 4–1, 2007.
Published References
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. M. and M. Karolik Collection of American Paintings, 1815 to 1865. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; published for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1949., no. 184, ill., pp. 412–13.
McLanathan, Richard. Fitz Hugh Lane (Museum of Fine Arts Picture Book Number Eight). Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1956; 1972 second ed., p. 10. ⇒ includes 
text
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Wilmerding, John. Fitz Hugh Lane, 1804–1865: American Marine Painter. Salem, MA: The Essex Institute, 1964., no. 113, p. 64.
The American Neptune, Pictorial Supplement VII: A Selection of Marine Paintings by Fitz Hugh Lane, 1804–1865. Salem, MA: The American Neptune, 1965., plate XXVIII, no. 113, Brace's Rock, Eastern Point, Gloucester. ⇒ includes text
text
American Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1969., no. 717, p. 186.
Novak, Barbara. "Grand Opera and the Small Still Voice." Art in America 59 (March–April 1971)., ill.
Wilmerding, John. Fitz Hugh Lane. New York: Praeger, 1971., pl. 10, pp. 87–88.
Wilmerding, John, ed. American Light: The Luminist Movement, 1850–1875. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1980., fig. 117, pp. 111–13, text, p. 46, Brace's Rock, not shown in the exhibition.
Novak, Barbara. Nature and Culture: American Landscape Painting, 1825–1875. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980., fig. 20, pp. 30–31.
Novak, Barbara. Nature and Culture: American Landscape Painting, 1825–1875. Revised edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995., no. 20, p.32, Brace's Rock.
Kelly, Franklin. American Masters from Bingham to Eakins: The John Wilmerding Collection. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art; in association with Lund Humphries, 2004., pp. 91, 94.
American Masters from Bingham to Eakins: The John Wilmerding Collection. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 2004., no. 22, p. 93.
Wilmerding, John. Fitz Henry Lane. Gloucester, MA: Cape Ann Historical Association, 2005. Reprint of Fitz Hugh Lane, by John Wilmerding. New York: Praeger, 1971. Includes new information regarding the artist's name., pl. x, Brace's Rock, Eastern Point, Gloucester.
Novak, Barbara. American Painting of the Nineteenth Century: Realism, Idealism, and the American Experience, with a New Preface. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007., ill., pp. 115–17.
Wilmerding, John. "Fitz Henry Lane & Mary Blood Mellen." American Art Review 19, no. 4 (2007)., pp. 171, 176, Brace's Rock.
Wilmerding, John. Fitz Henry Lane & Mary Blood Mellen: Old Mysteries and New Discoveries. New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2007., no. 49, fig. 30, p. 102, text, p. 36. ⇒ includes text
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H. Travers Newton, Jr. "Fitz Henry Lane's Series Paintings of 'Brace's Rock': Meaning and Technique." Terra Foundation for American Art. Unpublished report., Brace's Rock, Eastern Point, Gloucester. ⇒ includes text
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Slifkin, Robert. "Fitz Henry Lane and the Compromised Landscape, 1848–1865." American Art 27, no. 3 (Fall 2013). View on Stable URL: www.jstor.org », fig. 6, p. 75, text, p. 74. ⇒ includes text
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The Braces Rock Series
The Brace’s Rock series of paintings is thought to comprise Lane’s last dated oils, painted in the fall and winter of 1863–64, not long before his death in August of 1865. Paintings of unusual peace and harmony, they present a fitting finale to Lane’s evolution as a painter. Each one is as much an ode to the bittersweet recollections of a late summer afternoon as it is a depiction of a familiar Gloucester landmark. Lane accomplished this without abandoning any of his fidelity to accurate depiction of place, season, and time of day.
Numerous writers have noted the symbolism of the decaying hull foundered on the rocks and the ebbing tide as markers of Lane's awareness of his own mortality. The paintings evoke an inescapable feeling of ennui in the preternatural calm of the sea, the limpid humidity of the still atmosphere, and the pink glow of the late afternoon sun off Brace's Rock. Knowing that these are Lane's last paintings, done in failing health in his studio throughout the course of his last winter, the viewer cannot escape the feeling that these paintings were a eulogy to his beloved Gloucester shoreline. Read on »