"Starlight" in Harbor

Artist Fitz Henry Lane (American, 1804 - 1865)

Dateca. 1855

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 24 1/4 x 36 1/8 inches (61.6 x 91.76 cm)
Framed: 35 x 47 x 4 1/8 inches (88.9 x 119.38 x 10.48 cm)

Credit LineGift of Sarah and Landon Rowland through The Ever Glades Fund

Object number2002.8

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

American Art

Terms

DescriptionThe painting features a marine view from an implied (out of frame) harbor. It includes sail boats and clipper ships. Most prominent is a clipper ship depicted just right of center. Figures in the foreground animate the scene. On the left, a group of workers return to shore in a boat. A lone man loiters on the dock to the right of center. On the same dock at the far right, two men engage in conversation.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

American Art from the Gallery’s Collection, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, October 4–25, 1980, no. 20.

Gallery Label

Fitz Henry Lane's luminous "Starlight" in Harbor pays homage to the large ship anchored near the center of the painting. Built in 1854, Starlight was one of a new generation of clipper ships built for great speed, which facilitated international trade and aided in expanding the nation's economy. The setting is Boston Harbor, where various vessels and laborers are harmoniously arranged, betraying the usual bustle of the port.

Born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Lane was essentially untrained as a painter. His style combined precise drawing, which he learned as a printmaker's apprentice, and atmospheric effects typical of British and American marine paintings available to him in Boston. Here, Starlight's crisply painted and highlighted sails especially suggest the ship's power and beauty.

Provenance

To Baker & Morrill Shipping Company, Boston, c. 1855;

to Dr. Charles Baker Hitchcock (great-grandson of Ezra Howes Baker), Pound Ridge, N.Y., by descent;

to private collection, by descent, after 1969;

to (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1980);

to Masco Corporation, Taylor, Mich., 1980;

to (Sotheby’s, New York, 3 December 1998, lot 119);

to Glen S. Foster, New York, 1998; to estate of Glen S. Foster, New York, 2001;

to (Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg, New York, 21 May 2002, lot 72);

to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2002.

Published References

Octavius T. Howe and Frederick C. Matthews, American Clipper Ships: 1833–1858 (Salem, Mass.: Marine Research Society, 1927), 2:629 (as “Star Light,” 1153 Tons, Built at South Boston, Mass., in 1854).

American Art from the Gallery’s Collection, exh. cat. (New York: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, 1980), 30, cover.

American paintings from the Masco Corporation (New York: Sotheby’s, 1998), lot 119.

American Art (New York: Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg, 2002), lot 72.

Alice Thorson, “Nelson Gets a Pair of All-American Gifts,” Kansas City Star, 30 June 2002, K1.

“ ‘Starlight’ Anchors at Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,” Antiques & the Arts Weekly (Newton, Conn.), 19 July 2002, 12.

“Museum Gets $5 Million and a New Painting,” Maine Antique Digest 30 (August 2002), 9A.

Ann E. Berman, “Phillips Turns Art Auctions into a Three-Horse Race,” Maine Antique Digest 30 (August 2002), 2B.

A. J. Peluso Jr., “American Marine Art from the Estate of Glen S. Foster,” Maine Antique Digest 30 (August 2002), 3B.

Margaret C. Conrads, ed. The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: American Paintings to 1945 (Kansas City, Mo.: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2007), 1:372–375, 2:155.

""Starlight" in Harbor, c.1855 (inv. 249)," last modified March 17, 2016. Fitz Henry Lane Online. Cape Ann Museum. http://fitzhenrylaneonline.org/catalog/entry.php?id=249

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.