Fitz Henry Lane – my daily art display

Maritime Art. Part 1.

The Sea and the Ships

Storm at Sea by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1569)

Maritime painting is an art genre that depicts ships and the sea. Early examples of this genre were found in Greek vase paintings and the wall paintings of Pompeii. Storm at Sea is one of earliest specific seascapes and was painted around 1569 by Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s and thought to be one of his last paintings. It is unfinished and, like so many of his works, defies unambiguous interpretation. On the one hand, we see ships threatened by a storm reminding us that man is not master of Nature, in fact man is often its victim. To try and save themselves from the stormy sea the sailors have poured oil onto the water. They have also sacrificed a barrel from their cargo to distract the mighty whale who is attacking their vessel.

The Battle of Terheide (1657), commemorating the Battle of Scheveningen on 10 August 1653 by Willem van de Velde the Elder.

The greatest marine artists of the 17^th century were Willem van de Velde the Elder and his son, Willem van de Velde the Younger. They were best known for their spectacular depictions of storms at sea, and of nautical life, as well as their painstakingly drawn depictions of ships and naval battles. To commemorate the Dutch naval commander Maerten Harpertsz Tromp, his family commissioned a series of pen paintings of Tromp’s best-known battles from Willem van de Velde the Elder. The artist used pen and ink on canvas for these works, which which bear a resemblance to meticulous, accurate engravings. Van de Velde witnessed the Battle of Terheide in 1653 and he used the sketches that he produced on board as studies for this pen painting.

Men O’ War in Action by Willem van de Velde the Elder

Willem van de Velde the Elder was born in Leiden in 1611. He was the son of the captain of a merchant vessel, Willem Willemsz van de Velde. When he was young, he would often accompany his father on sea voyages and this probably shaped his career as a marine artist. Van de Velde married Judith van Leeuwen in Leiden in 1631 and the couple went on to have three children, a daughter, Magdalena, and two sons who would become renowned painters, Willem van de Velde the Younger, a marine artist and Adriaen van de Velde, a landscape painter.

Ships in a Stormy Sea by Willem van de Velde the Younger (c.1672)

The painting entitled Ships in a Stormy Sea by Willem van de Velde the Younger depicts the drama and the excitement of those who braved the seas in the 17th century. Willie van de Velde the Younger had first-hand knowledge of sailing, and his marine paintings were appreciated for their realistic depictions of ships and sailing tactics. In this work the ship in the foreground is a kaag, a light fishing vessel. The artist has depicted it as sailing close-hauled in the strong breeze, which is one of the most difficult sailing manoeuvres, in which the vessel sails into the wind as directly as it can without causing the sails to flap uselessly.

States Yacht and other vessels in a very light air by Willem van de Velde the Younger.

Whereas his father specialised in drawings and pen paintings, Van de Velde the Younger was best known for his oil paintings, which depicted life at sea in full colour. He was born in Amsterdam in 1633 and trained as a painter with the Dutch artist Simon de Vlieger, who was known for his marine paintings, beach scenes, landscapes and genre work. Unlike his father, Willem de Velde the Younger was a trained artist, unlike his father who was self-taught. Van de Velde the Younger worked closely with his father and the pair brought their artistic visions to life. Often, he would use his father’s drawings as a guide to create his own masterpieces. The father was a master of detail whereas his son was a master of light. It was this combination of artistic talents that was to lead to the success of their studio business.

The Home Fleet Saluting the State Barge by Jan van der Capelle (1650)

Shipping in a Calm at Flushing with a States General Yacht Firing a Salute by Jan van de Cappelle (1649)

Jan van de Cappelle was a Dutch Golden Age painter of seascapes and winter landscapes, also notable as an industrialist and art collector. He is now considered the outstanding marine painter of 17th century Holland. Jan van de Cappelle was wealthy and was occupied full-time running his father’s dyeing business. Though he painted some beach scenes and winter landscapes, most of his paintings represent the mouths of wide rivers or quiet inner harbours, where groups of ships at anchor were depicted in glassy calm waters. Many of his marine art works depict full cloud formations which hover over these tranquil waters and are mirrored in colourful reflections, often set in early morning or evening. When he died, aged fifty-three, in 1679, his estate was worth more than 90,000 guilders.

The Ships “Winged Arrow” and “Southern Cross” in Boston Harbour by Fitz Henry Lane (1853)

Fitz Henry Lane was born on December 19, 1804, in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Lane and was christened Nathaniel Rogers Lane three months later and would remain known as such until he was twenty-seven. In March 1832, Lane requested that his name be changed to Fitz Henry Lane. The reasons behind Lane’s decision to change his name, and for choosing the name he did, are still very unclear. Lane and his family lived on the outskirts of Gloucester close to the harbour’s working waterfront and so, growing up, Lane had contact with all the elements of maritime life. Lane’s father, Jonathan Lane was a sailmaker and it was thought that his son would follow him into the business or become a seafarer. Unfortunately, when only eighteen months of age he became ill and suffered a form of paralysis of the legs. Growing up he was unable to join his friends in games and became withdrawn and stayed at home where, for amusement, he began to draw. This developed into an amazing talent and living close to the sea and the harbour he began to sketch the ships and the harbour.

Salem Harbor by Fritz Henry Lane (1853)

For fifteen years, Lane was employed at Pendleton’s Lithography shop in Boston and during those years as a lithographer Lane honed his artistic skills. He produced many works of marine art and was listed as a marine painter in the 1840 edition of the Boston Almanac. His works became extremely popular and were in great demand. Then despite living in Boston, it never prevented him returning on a number of occasions to his birthplace, Gloucester. Aged forty-eight Lane left Boston and moved back to Gloucester where in 1849 he designed and had constructed his own granite house with seven gables and a studio on Duncan’s Point. This house would remain his primary residence to the end of his life. Fitz Henry Lane died on August 14th, 1865, aged 60.

Rainbow at Sea with some cruising Ships by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (1836)

Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, a Dutch painter, was born in Blåkrog in the Duchy of Schleswig on January 2^nd 1783. He was at the forefront of the Golden Age of Danish Painting, a period from 1800 to around 1850 and is often referred to as the “Father of Danish painting”. After 1821 seascapes had become Eckersberg’s favourite subject.

The Russian Ship of the Line “Asow” and a Frigate at Anchor in the Roads of Elsinore by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (1828)

Eckersberg’s best loved maritime painting is his 1828 work entitled The Russian Ship of the Line “Asow” and a Frigate at Anchor in the Roads of Elsinore. This majestic work is not a true rendition of the scene but an idealised version as the setting of the scene is not Copenhagen where he had studied Russian ships of the line on two occasions. We also know from his diaries that he had also studied the ship’s design from technical drawings he had borrowed from the naval dockyard. However the backdrop is not Copenhagen but Elsinore where we can see Kronborg Castle in the background. Kronborg is the castle and stronghold in the town of Helsingør, Denmark, which was immortalized as Elsinore in William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. The depiction is what the ship, Asow, would have looked like if viewed from a vantage point on the Øresund.

The Corvette Galathea in a Storm in the North Sea by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (1839)

Although he was known for his portraiture and historical paintings, marine paintings was another genre he developed. Eckersberg developed a passion for ships, and, at the age of fifty-six, sailed around the Skagerrak, the Kattegat, the North Sea, and as far as the English Channel. These sailing trips on the open seas brought home to Eckersberg that sea could be quite threatening and whereas many of his early work focused on cam seas, later works often depicted the ferocity of the sea.

If you would like to read more about the art of Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg then have a look at the five blogs I did focusing on his life life and paintings.

Northeaster by Wilmslow Homer (1895)

Winslow Homer was an American landscape painter and illustrator and is renowned for his marine subjects. By many, he is considered one of the leading painters of 19th-century America. His 1895 painting entitled Northeaster can be found in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City. It depicts a wave crashing aggressively against a rocky Maine shoreline. Homer loved the East coast of America around Maine and eventually settled down there in 1883, moving from New York to Prouts Neck, Maine where he lived at his family’s estate in the remodelled carriage house seventy-five feet from the ocean. The title of the painting, Northeaster, does not refer to a location in America, but is a name given to a specific type of wind that occurs within the western North Atlantic Ocean. The painting depicts just a small section of rock seen in the lower left corner whilst, in the background, a spectacular section of sea is seen riding relentlessly towards the shore.

Early Morning, After A Storm At Sea By Winslow Homer (1900-1903)

Whilst living at Prouts Neck, Winslow Homer looked out upon the sea and once commented to a friend that painting was all about timing:

“…You must not paint everything you see. You must wait, and wait patiently until the exceptional, the wonderful effect or aspect comes. Then, if you have sense enough to see it—well . . . that is all there is to that…”

Homer began this seascape in 1900 and based it on a watercolour he had completed in 1883. He was proud of the finished work in oils stating that it was the best picture of the sea that he had painted but was totally dismayed when it was poorly received by the critics. He just said of this dismissive reception that no one understood the work and besides that, the people never see the early morning effect. They don’t get up early enough.

View of Lac Léman by Gustave Courbet (1874)

Threatening grey clouds move across the sky above the calm Swiss lake but the cloud formation threatens an oncoming storm. The depiction is set in the evening and on the horizon against the vivid orange and gold of the setting sun we can just barely make out a tiny boat. Soft red reflections streak the surface of the water. Courbet had left France in 1873 for political reasons and settled on the shores of Lac Léman in Switzerland where he painted a number of scenes featuring the lake at sunset.

Marine by Gustave Courbet

Four years earlier during the late summer of 1869 Courbet travelled to Étretat, a small fishing village which was famous for its towering coastal cliffs with their rock arches carved out by the relentless sea. Courbet was fascinated by the sea and completed twenty-nine works during his stay at Étretat. His depictions of the sea would vary from the quiet tranquillity of the calm sea to the violence of crashing waves upon the rocks. In the above work Courbet shows us the power of the sea with white-capped waves with foam fringes as they approaches us. The painting has captured the feel of motion and the immense power of the relentless waves.

In Part 2, I will be looking at Marine paintings which feature those who enjoy relaxing by the sea and those whose living is connected with the sea.

Mary Blood Mellen and Fitz Henry Lane – Pupil and Master.

Mary Taylor Blood was born on May 13th, 1819. Her father was Reuben Blood, Jr. and her mother was Sally Taylor Blood and they lived in Sterling Massachusetts. Mary had two older brothers but was the eldest of four sisters. When she was still only a child, she was enrolled in Miss Thayer’s school, where she learned to paint with watercolours. Having shone as a potential artist she later moved to the Quaker’s Fryville Seminary in Bolton, Massachusetts. This school was established in 1823 by Thomas Fry, a local Quaker, as a co-educational preparatory school. It was here that she improved her skill as an artist and developed her early talent for sketching and painting.

*Taking in the Sail by Mary Blood Mellen*

Whilst still a teenager, the family moved to Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire and as fate would have it a young Universalist minister, Reverend Charles W. Mellen, arrived to act as pastor in the neighbouring towns. Reverend Mellen came from a family of farmers from nearby Phillipston and soon after, he and Mary met and the couple fell in love. In 1840 Mary and the Reverend Charles Mellen, married and went to live in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Mary and her husband relocated many times due to his pastoral work and in 1846 while living in the Massachusetts town of Foxborough, Mary gave birth to a daughter, Amanda. Sadly the baby only survived for forty-eight hours and the gravestone they erected at the site of the grave had the poignant inscription:

“…Our short-lived flower returned unto God…”

Even sadder was the fact that the couple never had any other children. Mary was fortunate that she had the support of her husband during these sad times and he was also very supportive with regards Mary’s artistic work.

*Field Beach, Stage Fort Park* by Mary Blood Mellen (c.1850)

Mary’s brother-in-law, William Grenville Roland Mellen, was also a Universalist minister and in the late 1840’s had his ministry in Cambridge Massachusetts and Mary and her husband made a number of visits to visit him in the city. Cambridge was a metropolitan suburb of Boston and at the time Boston was considered to be the New England’s centre of culture. In the city there was the Boston Athenaeum which is one of the oldest independent libraries in the United States. In the years 1872–1876, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts exhibited in the Athenaeum’s gallery space while waiting for construction of its own building to be completed and at that time it boasted the largest art collection in New England. One can be sure that Mary Mellen, whilst visiting her brother-in-law and his family, found time to visit the building and discover the artistic treasures it held. Some of the works on display which Mary would have seen were by the American painter and printmaker, Fitz Henry Lane.

Fitz Henry Lane was born in the fishing port of Gloucester, Massachusetts on December 18th,1804. He was actually born Nathaniel Rogers Lane but in 1831, when he was twenty-seven, he legally changed his first and middle names, becoming known as Fitz Henry Lane. He suffered various illnesses as a young child. The most severe was paralysis due to infantile polio and after this illness he had to use crutches. Lane learned the basic art techniques while in his teens and in 1832 he started work with a firm of lithographers in Gloucester. Later in 1832, he moved to Boston for formal training and enrolled as an apprentice with William S. Pendleton, who owned one of the city’s most important lithographic firm. Lane stayed working for Pendleton until 1837, during which time he produced many illustrations for sheet music and scenic views.

*Salem Harbour by Fitz Henry Lane (1853)*

Whilst living in in Boston, Lane became aware of the artistic works of the English-born artist Robert Salmon, who was looked upon as the most accomplished marine painter in the area. Works of art by Salmon with their precisely detailed ships and sharply rendered effects of light and atmosphere had a pivotal influence on Lane’s early style. By 1840, Lane had produced his first oil paintings and soon he was listed in a Boston almanac as a “Marine Painter.” His works were first exhibited at the Boston Athenaeum in 1841 and, after 1845, his works were regularly shown there.

*Clipper Ship Sweepstakes by Fitz Henry Lane (1853)*

One of his very fine ship portrait is his 1853 painting entitled Clipper Ship Sweepstakes. The work is thought to be a pendant piece of his 1854 work entitled The “Golden State” Entering New York Harbor, The Golden State was another clipper ship owned by Chambers and Heiser who probably commissioned both works.

*The Golden State entering New York Harbor by Fitz Henry Lane (1853)*

This large work, The Golden State entering New York Harbor, was some four feet wide, and is considered one of Lane’s masterpieces. The location in the depiction is not known, but it could well be the broad bay at the mouth of New York harbour. It is a blustery day with scudding clouds and a frothy chop in the very green water. The ship is flying a blue-and-white swallowtail pennant with a red tail—the house flag of Chambers and Heiser—on its foremast. An American flag flies off its stern.

*View of Coffin’s Beach by Fitz Henry Lane (1862)*

However, although there is no evidence that Mary Blood Mellon was formally apprenticed to Fitz Henry Lane, his early years spent working in various lithography workshops would have impressed upon him the value of having an apprentice and the connection became an asset to both the master and the student. By the mid-1850s, it seems that Mary Mellen was working alongside Lane in his Gloucester studio, and the “coupling” was working well as it appears that Lane had given Mary free access to his drawings and on some occasions allowed her to make copies from his canvases. Her copies were so good and her stylistic faithfulness increased, such that, at a later time, even Lane himself appeared uncertain as to which was his when both were shown side by side.

*Owl’s Head, Penobscot, Maine* by Fitz Henry Lane in 1862

A classic example of the this can be seen when you look at both their renditions of a scene entitled Owl’s Head, a coastal town in Knox County, Maine. Fitz Lane completed his painting (2) Owl’s Head, Penobscot, Maine in 1862. Lane painted Owl’s Head, (1), named for its distinctive profile, from the east, with the Camden Hills beyond. The land formations delicately mirrored in still water, the clear sky, and the pale, salmon colours of early morning emphasize the atmosphere rather than the topography of the site. On the back of the painting, an inscription in Lane’s handwriting establishes it as his own work: Owl’s Head–Penobscot Bay, by F.H. Lane, 1862.

The curators and conservators of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston compared paint application and the use of colour in the paintings by Mellen (1) and Lang (2). In general, they stated that Lane’s brushstrokes seem crisper, and he more precisely defines compositional elements such as the pine trees. They also concluded that Lane’s palette is also cooler than Mellen’s. Yet on careful examination, they agreed that these details can sometimes be too close to definitively separate the authorship and it could be entirely possible that, in studio tradition, Lane contributed to Mellen’s paintings, even if she signed them, and this complicates the issues of attribution even further.

Mary Mellen was said to have copied Lane’s style so that even he could not tell which was his own painting. In his 2006 book, Fitz H. Lane: An Artist’s Voyage through Nineteenth-Century America (2006), the author James A Craig wrote:

“…Mrs. Mellen is so faithful in the copies of her master that even an expert might take them for originals. Indeed, an anecdote is related of her, which will exemplify her power in this direction. She had just completed a copy of one of Mr. Lane’s pictures when he called at her residence to see it. The copy and the original were brought down from the studio together and the master, much to the amusement of those present, was unable to tell which was his own, and which was the pupil’s…”

This copying was not unusual in an artist-apprentice relationship. What confuses some art historians as to the attribution of a painting as it appears as though Mellen had a hand in completing parts of several Lane paintings, or may have even sketched certain landscape views that would have been difficult for Lane to access, given his lameness

*Coast of Maine by Fitz Henry Lane and Mary Mellen (c.1850)*

There is only one known work signed by both Lane and Mellen, and this is their 1850’s work entitled Coast of Maine. Both Mellen and Lane signed the back of the canvas of the small tondo.

*Blood Family Homestead (ca. 1859) by Mary Blood Mellen*

In August 1859 Mary Mellen and Fitz Henry Lane travelled together to to visit the Blood family residence in Sterling, Massachusetts, where they both created paintings of the Blood homestead with the two paintings depicting a different season.

FITZ HENRY LANE (Massachusetts, 1804-1865), "The Blood Family Homestead"., Oil on canvas, 18" x 30". Framed 22" x 35". — *The Blood Family Homestead by Fitz Henry Lane*

It is thought that by 1861 the Mary Mellen and her husband were living in Dorchester, Massachusetts, which was only a short distance from Gloucester. Three years later, the couple moved again, this time to Taunton, Massachusetts, which was about forty miles south of Boston.

Mary Mellen suffered duel losses in the mid 1860’s. Fitz Henry Lane had been unwell throughout 1864 and 1865 and this culminated in a bad fall in August 1865, followed by a heart attack. He died in his home on Duncan’s Point on August 14th, 1865 and is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery. One of Boston’s newspapers described his death as “a national loss,” however Lane’s reputation during his lifetime was mainly local and after his death he and his works were largely forgotten outside Gloucester. A year later Mary’s husband, Reverend Charles W. Mellen, died suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of forty-eight. Following Lane’s death in 1865 and Charles Mellen’s death in 1866, Mary Mellen, now widowed and childless, moved to Connecticut to live with her widowed sister-in-law, Sophronia Haskell.

Mary Mellen carried on painting until her death on February 11^th,1886, when she died of typhoid at the age of sixty-six in Sterling, Massachusetts. Her passing was noted in several newspapers with obituaries acclaiming her as “a woman of great acquirements and an artist of prominence. Her specialty was marine work and her pictures were very popular.” Her will, which she had made in 1882 stipulated to which niece and nephew each of her original paintings by Fitz Lane should go. She also insisted that Lane’s nephew Fitz Henry Winter should receive a painting by Fitz Lane, as well as a portrait of him that was in her collection. In recent years, art historians recognize Mary Blood Mellen as one of the most accomplished artists to work on Cape Ann in the years immediately preceding the Civil War.