Fitz Henry Lane

Mr. Lane was born Dec. 19, 1804. At the age of eighteen months, while playing in the yard or garden of his father, he ate some of the seeds of the apple-peru; and was so unfortunate to lose the use of his lower limbs in consequence, owing to late and unskillful medical treatment. He showed in boyhood a talent for drawing and painting; but received no instruction in the rules till he went to Boston, at the age of twenty-eight, to work in Pendleton’s lithographic establishment. From that time, his taste and ability were rapidly developed; and after a residence of several years in Boston, he came back to Gloucester with a reputation fully established. Since his return to his native town, he has painted many pictures, all of which have been much admired.

John J. Babson
History of the Town of Gloucester, 1860

Fitz Henry Lane, Gloucester Harbor at Sunrise, 1850s

Fitz Henry Lane, The Western Shore with Norman's Woe, 1862

Fitz Henry Lane, The Burning of the Packet Ship "Boston," 1830, watercolor, Lane's first known work

It has been generally accepted that Gloucester-born Nathaniel Rogers Lane changed his name to Fitz Hugh Lane at some point, but no one knew why. In 2004, researchers in Gloucester found the 1831 letter he sent to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts requesting a name change, not to Fitz Hugh Lane but to Fitz Henry Lane. His petition was granted, but why he did it is still a mystery. 

The apple-peru Lane presumably ate as a small child may have been the seed or fruit of some member of the highly poisonous nightshade family. Regardless of the cause of his disability, Lane used crutches for the rest of his life. In spite - or perhaps because - of his handicap, Lane pursued an early interest in art. In 1832 he apprenticed himself to the Boston lithographer William S. Pendleton. During his tenure there, Lane produced a variety of work including panoramic views, advertisements, trade cards, signs and sheet music illustrations.

After establishing himself as a printmaker and painter in Boston, Lane returned to Gloucester in 1847 to concentrate on painting. Two years later he purchased a piece of land at the crest of Duncan’s Point with a commanding view of Gloucester harbor. He designed and built a dramatic seven-gabled, granite house and studio with the help of his brother-in-law. From his studio on the top floor of the house, Lane enjoyed sweeping views of Gloucester and its schooner filled harbor.

It was in his studio that Lane created works in oil based on his on-site drawings. He relied on the pencil sketches to remember what he had seen, but once in the studio he transformed the drawings into paintings that juxtaposed the mundane and the transcendent. He was uniquely able to show the commerce of the harbor, the precisely correct rigging of the ships and a building by building profile of the town without sacrificing his distinctive luminous, lyrical vision. The house still stands and is just a two-block walk from the Museum.

Fitz Henry Lane and Mary Blood Mellen, Coast of Maine, 1850s

One of Lane’s few known students, Mary Mellen, was born in 1817 and moved to Gloucester in the 1850s. She and Lane often painted together, and Mellen sometimes made copies of his work. Not surprisingly, her style and subjects were similar to Lane’s. The Museum’s Coast of Maine (1850s) is a rare example of collaboration between the teacher and student. Another painting in the Museum’s collection, Field Beach (Stage Fort Park, 1850s), is Mellen’s version of a scene also painted by Lane - a pastoral seaside landscape with cows.

Lane was never a reclusive artist. His studio was often filled with visitors who came to watch him work, and every new painting was cause for excitement. He traveled with friends and was involved in community activities. He organized tableaux, served on the board of the Gloucester Lyceum and even rode in a Fourth of July parade.

His best friend in Gloucester was Joseph Stevens, Jr. The relationship with the Stevens family was very important to the artist. In his 1971 book Fitz Hugh Lane, John Wilmerding introduces the Stevenses as follows:

The Stevens were an old Gloucester family; Joseph, Jr. managed the family’s dry goods business there. Interested in cultural and civic affairs, he was active in behalf of the American Art-Union, the Western Art Union and the local Lyceum movement. In Gloucester, he often rowed Lane out into the harbor, as he later did in the small coves of Maine. On one occasion, Lane 'was hoisted up by some contrivance to the mast-head of a vessel lying in the harbor in order that he might get some particular perspective that he wished to have.'” Lane, who rarely painted portraits, did separate portrayals of Stevens and his wife Caroline. These paintings are part of the Museum’s collection.

After his return to Gloucester, Lane’s reputation as an artist continued to grow. Individuals commissioned him to do seascapes, ship portraits and book illustrations. The major annual exhibitions at the Boston Athenaeum and the American Art Union in New York accepted his paintings. Boston and Gloucester newspapers championed his work, and an appreciative local following provided eager buyers.

On August 14, 1865, Lane died at home with his close friend Stevens at his bedside. His devotion to Lane continued long after the artist’s death. Stevens was the executor of Lane’s estate and allowed Lane to be buried in the Stevens’s family plot in Gloucester’s Oak Grove Cemetery. (Lane’s grave is now marked by a plaque provided by the Cape Ann Historical Association in 1960.) Stevens also organized Lane’s drawings and added notes on places, dates, their travels together and the paintings done from the drawings.

The Museum’s unparalleled collection includes 40 paintings, a rare watercolor (his first known work, painted in 1830) and 100 drawings, plus lithographic town views (all three that he did of Gloucester). The archives include an extensive collection of Lane’s letters.

Research on Lane is ongoing. In July of 2007, the Cape Ann Museum mounted the exhibition Fitz Henry Lane and Mary Blood Mellen: Old Mysteries and New Discoveries curated by noted Lane Scholar John Wilmerding.  Whereas most exhibitions are intended as the culmination of research endeavors, this one was unique in serving as a basis for further scholarship. Works by both Lane and Mellen were installed side by side for the first time in an effort to explore questions of collaboration and attribution. As a follow-up to the exhibition, a Scholars' Gathering, funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art, brought together leading scholars and experts on Lane and Mellen to consider unresolved issues in the artistic relationship of the two artists, thus opening the door to further inquiries.