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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. 395
Yacht "America" from Three Views
Three Views of Yacht "America"
c. 1851 Oil on canvas 18 1/2 x 27 1/2 in. (47 x 69.8 cm) No inscription found
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Additional material
- Essay on Yacht America from Three Views by Erik A.R. Ronnberg Jr., published in Antiques and Fine Arts, 2010.
- Essay on the ship America by Erik A.R. Ronnberg Jr. published in A Yachtsman's Eye: the Glen S. Foster collection of marine paintings / Alan Granby, Ben Simons. Copyright 2004 by Independence Seaport Museum.
Provenance (Information known to date; research ongoing.)
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts
L. Francis Herreshoff
Glen S. Foster, New York
Exhibition History
No known exhibitions.Published References
Wilmerding, John. Paintings by Fitz Hugh Lane. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art; in association with Harry N. Abrams, 1988., p.77, fig. 17, Three Views of Yacht "America".
Granby, Alan et al. A Yachtsman's Eye: The Glen S. Foster Collection of Marine Paintings. Philadelphia, PA: Independence Seaport Museum; in association with W.W. Norton, 2005., pl. III.14, p.175.
Ronnberg, Erik A.R., Jr. "Fitz Henry Lane's Yacht America from Three Views: Vessel Portrait or Artist's Concept." Antiques & Fine Art (Summer/Autumn 2010)., Yacht "America" from Three Views. ⇒ includes 
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Commentary
From the date of her launching (May 3, 1851) to the date of her departure for England (June 21, 1851), the schooner yacht America was afloat in American waters for only seven weeks. Lane would have been aware of her building, but it is unlikely that he would have taken time to travel to New York to sketch an unproven vessel, particularly if he was preparing another visit to Maine that summer. Under such circumstances, graphic sources for a painting would have been limited and not very accurate. Buttersworth portrayed America quite accurately in his painting of her race with the sloop Maria, but its date of completion is uncertain, for its derivative lithograph wasn't published until 1852.
Lane's painting of this schooner is one of his most unusual ship's portraits and one of his most puzzling. While the hull profile and sail plan are unmistakably those of America, many details do not agree or are simply absent, raising questions about his sources and when he painted the picture.
–Erik Ronnberg from Granby 2005, p.174