Princeton University Art Museum acquired Ship in Fog, a 1860 painting by Luminist master Fitz Henry Lane (1804-65). The 24 x 39 in, oil on canvas is set in Gloucester Harbor, looking toward land. In the foreground of the painting appears “the backs of two figures in a rowboat and a meticulously rendered schooner brig at anchor nearby. It has been suggested that the figures in the rowboat may represent the artist himself and a friend working as an assistant, per Lane’s practice of initially sketching compositions from the water. The painting’s subject, however, is arguably the fog itself, the most difficult of atmospheric conditions for a painter to render.”
Ship in Fog was acquired from a private collection in New York. In 2002, it was sold for $904,500. In 2004, the auction house Skinner set a record for selling a Fitz Henry Lane painting for $5.5 million (Manchester Harbor).
