Sailing Ships off the New England Coast

Fitz Henry Lane spent his life observing and painting the sea in the harbor towns of Boston and Gloucester, Massachusetts. The subjects of this painting are three ships sailing away from Gloucester Harbor, which can just be glimpsed in the far background. In the left foreground is a square-rigged brig, a schooner is in the center, and a second brig occupies the background on the right. Lane's attention to the geometric, repetitive shapes of the wind-filled sails and complex webs of rigging give the boats a sense of rhythm as they move over choppy seas.