Historical Materials

“LANE’S CHEF-D’OEUVRE. – Our talented townsman, Fitz H. Lane, Esq., one of the finest marine painters in this country, has now on free exhibition at the room of the Marine Insurance Company, a picture of New York harbor, with all the bewildering variety of ship-craft for which that bay is noted. The beholder seems standing upon the water; at a distance is a faint outline of the city, with that object, which like the State House in Boston, is always the most conspicuous in a view, however faint, of New York city—Trinity Church. A warm glow of sunshine rests upon the whole picture. Here is the stately clipper ship; the graceful steamer; the clumsy Indiaman; the rakish pilot boat; the puffing tug-boat and the uncouth lighter, and one waits in expectancy for the ferry boat to rush across the quiet scene. The shadows of the ships’ tall masts seem trembling down in the bosom of the water: every rope, block and sail, is arranged with nautical skill and exactness: in fine, the picture is worthy of Lane’s genius and his inimitable pencil. If it is not already purchased, it should be placed in the Merchant’s Exchange of New York, by the merchant princes of that city.”