Lighthouse at Camden, Maine Artist: Fitz Henry Lane (American, 1804–1865)

1851

American Paintings and Sculpture

Not on view

Commercial shipping played a critical role in the development of the American economy and became a popular subject in art and literature. Fitz Henry Lane rendered the Camden Harbor at sunset, uniting topographic precision with spectacular atmospheric effects. Made the same year that Herman Melville’s whaling novel Moby Dick was published, the painting shows a schooner filled with lumber sailing past Negro Island, where many free African Americans lived. As Maine gradually opened to commerce and tourism before the Civil War, the construction of numerous lighthouses aided coastal navigation.

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

23 × 34 in. (58.4 × 86.4 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of the Teresa and H. John Heinz III Foundation

Accession Number

1992.122.1

Geography

Depicted Camden, Maine, Made in Gloucester, Massachusetts, United States

Culture

American

Period

19th century

Classification

Paintings

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Bibliography
  • Robert Slifkin, "American Art Smithsonian American Art Museum," Fitz Lane's Compromised Seascapes 27 (2013), 69, fig. 3
  • Helen A. Cooper et al., Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2008), 150, no. 88, ill
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

landscapes (representations), marine (visual work), seascapes

Subject

boats lighthouses men mountains sky water

Signed

signed and dated lower right: F.H. 1851

Technical metadata and APIs

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