The Gloucester Project
As you look through the many paintings done by Gloucester's famous Fitz Henry Lane, you may notice a common theme. The sea, fishing vessels, the Gloucester Harbor. Lane focused on these components of Gloucester in almost all of his paintings done on the island. He painted realistically, showing the audience exactly what he saw. Yet, by always portraying aspects of Gloucester's fishing industry, the viewers of Lane's work see no other aspects of the city.
Fitz Henry Lane grew up surrounded by a maritime environment. His father was a sailmaker and he was often around a seaport. Due to his environmental influence, Lane became inspired by the sea and developed the skills to portray it. Lane painted many works of art throughout his life, a majority of which captured the sea and other maritime features.
Gallery
The Works of Fitz Henry Lane
As we explore our question of how the arts portray the city of Gloucester, we can use Lane as an example. With Lane's aptitude for seascapes and maritime portraits, his audience, whether they reside in or out of Gloucester, sees only what Lane wants them to, and that's the ocean. They then develop this explicit idea that Gloucester is the ocean, the fishing vessels, the harbor. In their influenced minds Gloucester becomes nothing more than what Lane's paintings imply. Fitz Henry Lane's art portrays Gloucester as a maritime environment, causing his audience to see the city as nothing more.
Boston Herald, December 1936. Photo: Col. Edwin H. Cooper. From the Gardner Lamson Collection.
Mary Blood Mellen, Field Beach, Stage Fort Park, c. 1850. Oil on canvas mounted over board. [Acc. #2019.2]
Stow Wengenroth, Rocks and Sea, 1935. Lithograph on paper. [Acc. #2771.28]
Samuel F. Hershey, Ellie [Portrait of Eleanor Weber Hershey, the artist’s wife], 1930. Oil on canvas. [Acc. #2543]
Eino Natti, Gloucester, 1961. Ink on cotton.
Skinning fish at Sylvanus Smith Co. near head of the harbor, c. 1910.
The thing about Gloucester, is that not only does Fitz Henry Lane portray the city as strictly a maritime environment, but other artists do too. The city, although it is much more than meets the eye, has been, and seemingly always will be, depicted and strongly characterized by the ocean and fishing industry.
The photograph titled "Alone at Sea" was an image once shown in the Boston Herald for many to see. The photograph of a Gloucester fisherman working at sea while facing the elements causes the viewers to think. What they think causes their opinions of Gloucester to form. Some may see the image and feel as though Gloucester men are always fishermen and nothing else. The city runs off of the fishing industry and must make its men face terrible weather to maintain the economy. Others may think that the man is clearly in a poor situation that has the potential to become dangerous. With this thought they may even come to believe that the city of Gloucester is full of loss because there are so many fishermen who must endure dangers each and everytime they set out, and sometimes those dangers are too great to overcome.
The oil painting by Mary Blood Mellen, "Field Beach, Stage Fort Park", very much adopts her teacher's style. Like Fitz Lane, Mellen repeatedly portrays the sea and boats. Therefore, much like Lane's audience, Mellen's audience sees Gloucester as the seaport it is most known for. They see the city as a marine environment, based around the ocean and fisheries.
Stow Wengenroth's lithograph called "Rocks and Sea" is yet another depiction of Gloucester that allows the audience to see only what the artist wants them to. Wengenroth's image shows rocks on a beach with waves crashing around them, in other words it shows the sea. Like many other artists portrayals of Gloucester, Wengenroth also shows the city through its maritime aspects. Through this sea-based view, the artist influences the viewers to also see Gloucester in a maritime light.
Sometimes artists convince their audiences not only that the city is completely based around the sea and fishing, but all of the people are too. This happens in both Samuel Hershey's painting, "Ellie", and in the photograph "Skinning Fish at Sylvanus Smith Co. Neat Head of Harbor." Hershey's portrait of his wife includes an iconic view of Gloucester as its background. Hershey's deliberate choice to paint his wife in this setting hints to the audiences that everyone, even an artists spouse, is controlled by the sea and the industry it created. The industry again controls the residents of the city in the photograph. The people in the image are skinning fish, likely caught by some of Gloucester's own fishermen, to prepare them for sale. This photograph communicates to the audience that not only are fishermen connected with the sea but many other people are involved with the industry as well. Thus, allowing the viewers minds to produce the idea that everyone in the city of Gloucester is affected by and/or working for the fisheries.
A myriad of viewpoints and opinions are formed when one looks at art, especially art that depicts a certain place. The art created which portrays the city of Gloucester is heavily influenced by the sea and the fishing industry the city is most known for. Through the arts depicting Gloucester in this way, many underestimate it and believe it is only a place for fishermen and those who have their sea legs.