Fitz Henry Lane

Gloucester native Fitz Henry Lane (1804-1865) was at the height of his career by 1850, when he executed Boston Harbor, a grand and tranquil scene of the bustling port of Boston. From the vantage of a hill in East Boston, a perspective popularized in printed views of the city, Lane suggests topographical accuracy in his carefully constructed scene of vessels dispersed before the horizon. Prominent features of Boston such as the State House and the Old South Church are clearly visible, but Lane lowered the horizon line to convey a sense of the expansive harbor.

Lane was largely self-taught, although he was a quick study of those resources available to him. As an apprentice in the Boston lithography shop of William S. Pendleton, he was known for his careful draughtsmanship and skill in rendering all the details of the different sailing vessels. At the time Lane was painting his ambitious scenes of Boston, Salem, and Gloucester, which likely appealed to patrons engaged in the shipping industry, the Erie Canal had diverted much of the traffic that would have passed through those destinations to the port of New York. The encroaching world of steam power, which dominated the Hudson River corridor from Albany to New York City, is indeed indicated by the appearance of a white steam ship entering the harbor at the far right.



This text was adapted from Davis, et al., MFA Highlights: American Painting (Boston, 2003).