A study against the weather record
Fitz Henry Lane
Castine Harbor and Town
Lane removed the foreground shore when he turned a sketch into this sunset. Can the records recover the weather behind it?
Painted day unknownWarm front unverified
The Nephos method
How this study was read
The method in fullWhat is written
The oil is signed and dated 1851. A later annotation assigns the preparatory drawing to August 1851. The catalogue places that annotation in the early twentieth century; it is not a contemporary itinerary or Lane’s own weather note.
F H Lane 1851
Artist’s signature and date, transcribed by Fitz Henry Lane Online, inv. 272.made this sketch for Noah Brooks in August 1851
Later annotation on the MFA drawing, 54.1727, transcribed by Fitz Henry Lane Online, inv. 277.
Records of those days
- J. D. Parker’s daily precipitation at SteubenComplete August entries from NOAA/CDMP and MRCC; observing hour unknown. A separate coastal locality, not Castine.
- Parker Cleaveland’s Brunswick observationsAugust precipitation amounts and a rain-day count, published by Charles A. Schott in 1867. Manually transcribed from the open scan.
Not found or not yet searched
- No exact date for the sketch or the painted evening has been established.
- No verified Castine daily record for the reported sketch month was obtained. Portland’s August rows contain no measurements.
Each claim tested
- What did Lane change? The catalogue documents removal of the drawing’s foreground shore, foliage and tree when Lane made the oil.
- What rainfall context survives for the reported sketch month? A low August total at Brunswick and few positive daily entries at Steuben. Each station remains separate; neither measures the harbor.
- Does the record verify the approaching warm front described in the catalogue? No. An undated painted sky cannot be matched to a particular weather system using regional rain records.
Verdict
Regional records supply rainfall context for the reported August sketch month. They cannot recover the weather of Lane’s composed sunset.
- UnknownA particular painted evening The month is reported by a later annotation; no day or hour is documented.
- UnknownAn approaching warm front at Castine The catalogue’s visual interpretation remains unverified by the available records.
What this cannot tell you. Rainfall does not establish calm water, clear skies or a cloud type. Historical gauge practice is not demonstrated constant. The Brunswick rank describes its printed table, with missing years excluded. No modern normal, station average or reconstructed local weather is substituted.
Step 1 · The picture and its making
A shore removed, an evening composed
This is the Timken Museum of Art’s oil painting, accession 1986:001, made for Noah Brooks of Castine. Its preparatory graphite and watercolor view is at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession 54.1727. Erik Ronnberg’s catalogue entry identifies a westward view from Hainey’s Point across the Bagaduce River. Lane removed the foreground land when he made the oil; the drawing’s shore, foliage and leafless tree no longer intervene between the viewer and the water. Melissa Geisler Trafton’s account documents that change. The sunset belongs to a developed composition, not a dated outdoor weather study.
The current catalogue transcribes Lane’s signed date as 1851. The 1988 National Gallery of Art catalogue labels the picture more broadly as the 1850s; this study follows the signed date reported by the current catalogue. The narrower month comes from an annotation on the preparatory drawing. It names August 1851, but the catalogue dates the annotation itself to the early twentieth century. It is not an August diary entry or a note in Lane’s hand.
Wilmerding’s account places the 1851 cruise in August. The Cape Ann Museum chronology is more cautious about whether Lane accepted that summer’s invitation. We therefore use August 1851 as the reported sketch month, with no claim that Lane stayed in Castine throughout it. Neither the sketch’s day nor the oil’s painted evening is established.
“F H Lane 1851”
Artist’s signature and date, transcribed by Fitz Henry Lane Online, inv. 272.
“made this sketch for Noah Brooks in August 1851”
Later annotation on the MFA drawing, 54.1727; the catalogue dates the annotation to the early twentieth century. Not Lane’s words.
Step 2 · The month in the records
Little rain at two separate stations
Parker Cleaveland’s Brunswick observations, published by Charles A. Schott in 1867, record 0.97 inches for August 1851. That ranks 4th driest among 31 available August totals in the printed table, spanning 1808–1859 with gaps. The same publication records 6 days of rain. Brunswick is about 107 km from the Castine town reference point; this is regional context, not a measurement at the harbor.
The nearer daily record is J. D. Parker’s at Steuben, about 68 km away. Its 31 precipitation entries sum to 1.13 inches. Only 2 dates carry positive amounts. These records give the reported sketch month a setting of limited rainfall at two separate places. They do not establish calm winds, clear evenings or a rain-free visit in Castine.
Every August amount used in the Brunswick ranking
| Year | August precipitation, inches |
|---|---|
| 1808 | 5.69 |
| 1809 | 2.48 |
| 1810 | 3.58 |
| 1811 | 3.61 |
| 1812 | 3.69 |
| 1813 | 2.14 |
| 1814 | 7.31 |
| 1815 | 3.02 |
| 1816 | 2.13 |
| 1817 | 3.35 |
| 1818 | 0.16 |
| 1839 | 7.04 |
| 1840 | 5.82 |
| 1841 | 0.52 |
| 1842 | 5.73 |
| 1843 | 12.21 |
| 1844 | 4.24 |
| 1845 | 4.41 |
| 1846 | 2.05 |
| 1847 | 6.63 |
| 1848 | 3.33 |
| 1849 | 7.82 |
| 1850 | 4.37 |
| 1851 | 0.97 |
| 1852 | 6.03 |
| 1854 | 0.28 |
| 1855 | 4.80 |
| 1856 | 6.32 |
| 1857 | 5.78 |
| 1858 | 7.76 |
| 1859 | 2.12 |
Step 3 · What the daily record can test
Rain dates do not date this sunset
At Steuben, the positive entries are 1.00 inch on 5 August and 0.13 inches on 21 August. The remaining entries are explicitly zero in the digitized file. The observing hour is unspecified, so these are the register’s dates, not rain timed to a particular sunset. Zero precipitation is not evidence of a cloudless sky.
A separate army record at Fort Sullivan, Eastport, about 154 km away, totals 0.90 inches on 4 dates. It is retained in the downloadable data as additional regional context. Portland’s August rows contain no weather measurements. Those blanks remain missing, not zero. Neither distant record fills the absence of a verified daily register at Castine.
Every daily precipitation entry at Steuben, August 1851
| 1851 | Precipitation, inches |
|---|---|
| 1 August | 0.00 |
| 2 August | 0.00 |
| 3 August | 0.00 |
| 4 August | 0.00 |
| 5 August | 1.00 |
| 6 August | 0.00 |
| 7 August | 0.00 |
| 8 August | 0.00 |
| 9 August | 0.00 |
| 10 August | 0.00 |
| 11 August | 0.00 |
| 12 August | 0.00 |
| 13 August | 0.00 |
| 14 August | 0.00 |
| 15 August | 0.00 |
| 16 August | 0.00 |
| 17 August | 0.00 |
| 18 August | 0.00 |
| 19 August | 0.00 |
| 20 August | 0.00 |
| 21 August | 0.13 |
| 22 August | 0.00 |
| 23 August | 0.00 |
| 24 August | 0.00 |
| 25 August | 0.00 |
| 26 August | 0.00 |
| 27 August | 0.00 |
| 28 August | 0.00 |
| 29 August | 0.00 |
| 30 August | 0.00 |
| 31 August | 0.00 |
Step 4 · Return to the painting
The weather system remains unknown
The Timken’s reading describes calm water and a late-summer sunset. Ronnberg goes further, interpreting the layered sky as an approaching warm front. That is a modern reading of the picture. There is no documented day against which to test it, and regional precipitation cannot identify a front over Castine. The study neither confirms nor contradicts that interpretation.
What can be established is a change in the picture’s construction and a regional rainfall setting for its reported sketch month. Lane opened the foreground to water; the Timken describes a deliberate ordering of the vessels and an expansive, theatrical sky. An exact day, local observations and evidence connecting that day to this sky would be needed to turn the regional comparison into a weather test of the painting.
“as a warm front approaches”
Erik Ronnberg, Fitz Henry Lane Online, inv. 272; a modern interpretation of the painted sky.
Sources
Every source on this page
Each file was downloaded and given a fingerprint (its sha256). The page is rebuilt from these files and will not build if a fingerprint changes, so every number above comes from them rather than being typed in.
- Erik Ronnberg, Fitz Henry Lane Online, inv. 272
sha256 17f24fddc79f56580d4c5e6d5629b9e817e8775369067f5d285b1e6cee0c1b31 - Melissa Geisler Trafton, Fitz Henry Lane Online, inv. 277
sha256 5a5bf214df80d022f1ad79ad68ba7824ca5c63c4fde3ffb99dfeb435ea036c5e - Timken Museum of Art, Castine Harbor and Town, 1986:001
sha256 2c36b5db3d4684f6bc5fb8421dc1e742ce143f8809fc20dbde733f5c62646934 - Timken Museum of Art, Work of the Week: Castine Harbor and Town
sha256 0ddfda357f7dbb3f494c7f9c2474ab46b0ce8c6619de53befff4fb7d678843b6 - Cape Ann Museum, Fitz Henry Lane chronology
sha256 37ef0f5503cd3691e52640aeb48db469a52b445b08605b37f6edb66d51f19c5b - John Wilmerding et al., Paintings by Fitz Hugh Lane (NGA, 1988)
sha256 64e177c5f3687f6989b4903ab1c07fc0e749ab87e732cc29b78ee4d19d85ad6c - Parker Cleaveland / Charles A. Schott, Brunswick observations (1867)
sha256 71dcbe90ace3b5b1c05614e60dae224b773fd1d59ba664e4e3789968abf492d8 - Nephos transcription of Brunswick August rain, all available years
sha256 1b89b20c3cf531c52da361a31ff37d6b5e7aa6a2ee492373c0d99ef23ca638d3 - J. D. Parker, Steuben daily precipitation, MRCC FORTS
sha256 022e85e0ba0b4bef52d9277cdcaf3b0bd5e3984e1db7f02fc0491384cff1c3d7 - MRCC, Steuben station history and data definitions
sha256 4301f866f2d6df0e656d101825ae19729e584f8eb4aba68795d706642e822a73 - Fort Sullivan / Eastport daily register, MRCC FORTS
sha256 a7502514109cccac8ffa630b6a712b27dbbd214debb479292320b7e1e328ee3f - MRCC, Eastport station history and data definitions
sha256 e222f665a6915bcfcfbaac92ab37eb3a974c429f285d704e60e52602511f56ed - Portland daily register, MRCC FORTS
sha256 dd1ad8cf2675a10f20c94a8d100d0936fce1cdc16b8f0143d665e9b8f00ec2ee - MRCC, Portland station history and data definitions
sha256 ccc3e8619e2e5bde7cacade6bfc85856f4fb548fac13a5b5cf3a84a8e8185e6d - OpenStreetMap, Castine town reference point
sha256 b7acf0cf37f5d25db79bccc2e920cbea0bfd0e5fbfd10b6172104c0800cab4b7 - Wikimedia Commons, Fitz Henry Lane - Castine Harbor and Town
sha256 e5b4c5e7172b3f1f6a4b5aef8829e43221f0df8125311cf5ccdacdcdc1346ec0 - Fitz Henry Lane, Castine Harbor and Town (1851), Timken 1986:001
sha256 14a142bbe43690ee44c760313a7cb697e7fd5fdfab513f7f05601fda0d6f9908
