Interpretation
A masterpiece of Lane’s late career, this sensitive depiction of light reflected on water and seen through fog demonstrates his abiding interest in atmospheric effects and acute awareness of the natural world. These preoccupations aligned Lane with Luminism, an approach that flourished among a group of American painters between 1850 and 1875. Influenced by the philosophical precepts of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) and the Transcendentalists, who saw nature as the ultimate expression of the divine, Luminist artists sought to unite matter and spirit through a precise focus on light and atmosphere. Lane began his career as a conventional ship portraitist but gravitated toward more subtle and complex investigations of marine subjects in works such as this, which depicts the artist’s native Gloucester Harbor in Massachusetts on a hazy summer afternoon, with Ten Pound Island and its lighthouse just discernible beyond the ship anchored at right.
Information
- Title
- Ship in Fog, Gloucester Harbor
- Object Number
- 2017-10
- Maker
- Fitz Henry Lane
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dates
- ca. 1860
- Dimensions
- 61 × 99.1 cm (24 × 39 in.) frame: 90.2 × 128.3 × 14 cm (35 1/2 × 50 1/2 × 5 1/2 in.)
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase made possible by the Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund; the Kathleen C. Sherrerd Program Fund for American Art; and Celia A. Felsher, Class of 1976, and John L. Cecil, Class of 1976
- Culture
- American
- Place depicted
- North America, United States, Massachusetts, Gloucester, Cape Ann
- Techniques
- Allen Rosenbaum, American Art from the Class of 1953 Collection, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 1993), n.p. (illus.)
- Jill Guthrie, ed., In celebration: works of art from the Collections of Princeton Alumni and Friends of The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 1997)., p. 222; p. 225, cat. no. 214 (illus.)
- American Art, (New York: Phillips de Pury & Luxembourg, 2002)., p. 44-47 (illus.)
- Object Lessons in American Art: Selections from the Princeton University Art Museum Saturday, February 4, 2023 - Sunday, January 7, 2024
- Princeton University Art Museum 10/13/2018–1/6/2019 Peabody Essex Museum 02/02/2019–5/5/2019 Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art 5/25/2019–9/9/2019
- In Celebration: Works of Art from the Collections of Princeton Alumni and Friends of the Art Museum (Saturday, February 22, 1997 - Sunday, June 08, 1997)
Feedback
The Museum regularly researches its objects and their collecting histories, updating its records to reflect new information. We also strive to catalogue works of art using language that is consistent with how people, subjects, artists, and cultures describe themselves. As this effort is ongoing, the Museum’s records may be incomplete or contain terms that are no longer acceptable. We welcome your feedback, questions, and additional information that you feel may be useful to us. Email us at collectionsinfo@princeton.edu.
Want to use an image from the Museum's collections? Review our image use and access policies.