Provenance
(Harvey Additon, Boston), until c. 1940; Mr. and Mrs. Francis Whiting Hatch, Sr., Boston, and Castine, Maine;[1] gift 1980 to NGA.
[1] According to Francis Hatch, Jr. (letter of 9 September 1982 in NGA curatorial files), his father purchased the painting from Harvey Additon's store on LaGrange Street in Boston about "forty years ago." Hatch adds: "By coincidence it was the same Additon who found many of the paintings in Maxim Karolik's collection."
Accession Number
1980.29.1
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 62.5 x 96.8 cm (24 5/8 x 38 1/8 in.) | framed: 97.8 x 129.5 x 10.2 cm (38 1/2 x 51 x 4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Francis W. Hatch, Sr.
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Oil Painting Canvas American
Background & Context
Background Story
Fitz Henry Lane (1804-1865) was America's greatest luminist painter, known for his seascapes and harbor views in which the light is so still and the atmosphere so transparent that the paintings seem to exist outside of time. Lumber Schooners at Evening on Penobscot Bay from 1863 is a quintessential Lane composition: schooners at anchor in a Maine bay, the evening light casting long reflections on perfectly calm water, and a sense of infinite stillness that distinguishes Lane's work from the more dramatic marine paintings of his contemporaries. The lumber schooners were the working vessels of the Maine coast, carrying timber from the Penobscot River to ports along the Eastern seaboard.
Cultural Impact
Lane's luminist seascapes are among the most distinctive images in American art, and their influence on later American painting—from Whistler's nocturnes to Hopper's empty harbors—has been enormous. The Lumber Schooners painting combines the topographic precision of a marine document with the atmospheric stillness of a meditation, creating a hybrid work that is simultaneously a record of the Maine coast and a philosophical statement about light, water, and time.
Why It Matters
Lumber Schooners at Evening on Penobscot Bay is Lane's luminism at its most characteristic: working schooners on perfectly calm water, the evening light creating reflections so precise that sea and sky become one, and a stillness so profound that the painting seems to exist outside time. The lumber schooners are real working vessels, but the light is luminism's gift to the Maine coast.
