AFA 18th Anniversary

2018 Antiques & Fine Art 175 Drawn from Nature and on Stone: The Lithographs of Fitz Henry Lane is on view through March 4, 2018 at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass. Text for this article is adapted from the author’s catalogue essay, “Fitz Henry Lane’s Lithographic Career.” For information on the exhibition and publication, visit www.capeannmuseum.org.  Georgia Barnhill is Curator of Graphic Arts Emerita, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass., and president of Amherst Historical Society. View of Gloucester, Mass. Drawn by F. H. Lane. Lithograph by L. H. Bradford & Company, 1859. Published by Procter Brothers, Gloucester. Lithograph on paper, 21¾ x 35½ in. Collection of the Cape Ann Museum; Gift of Mrs. Percy C. Proctor (1940). Lane’s third and final panorama of Gloucester reproduced lithographically again demonstrates his mastery of the panorama format, but it is likely that another draftsman at Bradford’s lithography company copied Lane’s painting first described in an advertisement in the Cape Ann Advertiser in 1858 as a “Fine View of Gloucester, which our distinguished fellow-citizen, F. H. Lane, Esq., has recently sketched from nature and imparted to the canvass.” One reason that a market for this print existed was the publication in 1858 of a lithograph printed by Marshall M. Tidd in Boston, described at the time as not “worth having” and as a “poor caricature.” A sample proof of Lane’s lithograph was on display by January 7, 1859, and Procter advertised the availability of the print at the end of the month for $2.50. Sales were brisk and the prints were nearly all disposed of by March. To add value to some of the prints, it seems that Lane had several of the lithographs mounted on canvas and applied oil paint to them. These sold for $25 each. text continued from page 168