Fitz Henry Lane (1804–1865), Gloucester, Stage Fort Beach, 1849. Oil on canvas. Gift of Shelley and Felice Bergman, 2021 (2021.14.1).

Donated by Shelley and Felice Bergman to the Hudson River Museum of  Yonkers, New York, is the important work of mid-19th century marine artist Fitz Henry Lane (1804-1865), Gloucester, Stage Fort Beach, 1849. This extraordinary piece, alongside the donation of a Severin Roesen (1815-c. 1872) still life, highlight the museum’s vast collection of American paintings, sculptures and decorative arts, among other mediums.

Lane spent the majority of his life in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and dedicated his career to depicting scenes of the region, especially of Cape Ann, the site where English settlers first landed in the 1600s, and what is also featured in Gloucester, Stage Fort Beach. The contribution of Lane’s awe-inspiring landscape and water scene, is a perfect example of what the museum notes was the development of the Hudson River School’s study of light effects at different times of day that they coined “luminism.”

“Lane’s expanse of light-filled sky, taking up over half the canvas, and the mirror-like bay that reflects it, are classic elements of the style,” the Hudson River Museum notes. “The artist’s refined use of color, nuances of tinted light, and crystalline surfaces of calm waters presage the hallmarks that would come to define Lane’s unique and celebrated pictorial vision.”

The Bergmans’ donation of both paintings has greatly expanded the museum’s support of and impact on American fine art education and awareness. “I cannot overstate the impact these masterpieces and these artists will have on the collection and on the stories we tell in our galleries,” says Laura Vookles, Chair of the HRM’s curatorial department. For starters, the paintings have been debuted in HRM’s ongoing exhibition Cycles of Nature: Highlights from the Collections of the Hudson River Museum and Art Bridges, on view through February 2023.

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