The painting is at Newport Art Museum. A reproduction is not shown because an open image licence has not been established.
A study against the weather record
Fitz Henry Lane
First New York Yacht Club Regatta off New Bedford
Lane places spectators in rough water as the racing yachts prepare to start. What do the records of the regatta support, and can a day’s rain total explain the sky?
Wind partly supportedExact sky unknown
The Nephos method
How this study was read
The method in fullWhat is written
Newport Art Museum dates its canvas 1856; Cape Ann Museum’s Lane catalogue dates it After 1856. It was likely finished in the studio afterwards, an inference rather than a documented session. The window is the regatta of 8 August 1856, never a painted day.
came off on the 8th of August
U.S. Nautical Magazine and Naval Journal, vol. V (1856), p. 16; scan linked by Fitz Henry Lane Onlinethe wind and waves about all they can manage.
Erik Ronnberg, Fitz Henry Lane Online, commentary on inv. 396
Records of those days
- Sailing Committee reportContemporary race date, class starting times and a qualitative report of a very fresh south-westerly wind throughout the race.
- R. B. F. aboard Julia, attributed to Robert Bennet ForbesWind near the start and increasing wind and sea out in the bay; read in the 1950 reprint, not the original newspaper.
- New Bedford daily register, NOAA/CDMP and MRCCA rain entry on the event date. The gauge’s observation time and accumulation boundary are not specified; temperature fields are blank.
- Henry Smith’s Westport journalA pleasant south-westerly morning and a thunder shower later in the same entry; a separate land account in the 2025 volunteer transcription.
Not found or not yet searched
- No original Lane letter or securely dated regatta sketch was inspected to establish his exact observation session.
- No measured wind speed, wave height or cloud record at the painted viewpoint was established.
- The nearby Fort Adams row has no observations; its dated row is not weather coverage.
Each claim tested
- Does the depicted rough sailing have documentary support? The two race accounts support a fresh wind, with increasing wind and sea farther out. They do not measure the waves at Lane’s selected starting-line viewpoint.
- Does the rain entry date the painted sky? No. The gauge assigns rain to the date without an observation hour. Smith’s later shower is at Westport and cannot be moved to the regatta start.
- What did Lane change? He selected the starting scene from a longer event. Later studio completion is likely under the catalogue’s alternative dating. No verified sketch-to-canvas comparison establishes a change to the weather.
Verdict
The event records support vigorous sailing. Rain belongs to the date in the town register, but the exact painted sky and any alteration to the weather remain unverified.
- Partially agreesWind and rough sailing Qualitative accounts support the broad conditions, without measuring the painted waves.
- UnknownRain at the depicted start A daily gauge amount and a shower elsewhere cannot establish rain in the pictured moment.
- UnknownExact sky or altered weather The event is dated; the observation and execution sessions are not.
What this cannot tell you. The committee’s S. W. and the observer’s about S.S.W. remain separate descriptions; neither is converted to a wind speed. Westport is a separate location, and the rain gauge was on land in New Bedford. Likely studio completion is an inference from the later catalogue date. A possible regatta drawing is not secure evidence for the sky. No openly licensed reproduction of this painting was established; links lead to the museum and catalogue.
Step 1 · The picture and its making
The start of the race, the date of the canvas
Lane gives the small spectator boats a place in front of the racing fleet. Erik Ronnberg’s catalogue commentary on this Newport painting places us on the Fairhaven side of the harbour, looking west, as yachts prepare to start. It describes the foreground spectators struggling with wind and waves. This is a reading of the picture, not a measurement taken from it.
Newport Art Museum dates accession 1991.007.001 to 1856. Cape Ann Museum’s Lane catalogue dates its Newport work “After 1856”. It was likely finished in the studio afterwards; that is an inference from the alternative dating, not a documented studio session. The weather window is the regatta of 8 August 1856, never a painted day.
Ronnberg’s 1988 essay places Lane at the regatta, sketching, and reads the spectator craft as a compositional counterpoint to the racing yachts. The surviving sloop drawing associated with the event is only a possible regatta sketch. No original letter or securely dated drawing inspected here fixes Lane’s session or the sky he saw.
The contemporary report records successive starts for the three classes. The catalogue’s descriptions of the paintings’ sequence are not consistent enough to assign this canvas an exact minute. These times locate the event, not the act of painting.
| Class | Local time as printed | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Third | 10:50 | Nautical Magazine, p. 16 |
| Second | 10:55 | Nautical Magazine, p. 17 |
| First | 11:00 | Nautical Magazine, p. 17 |
Step 2 · Witnesses on the water
A fresh wind, with more sea outside the harbour
The Sailing Committee reports a very fresh wind from the south-west throughout the race. The account signed R. B. F., attributed to Robert Bennet Forbes in the later reprint, places its writer aboard Julia. It gives a fresh wind from about south-south-west near the start and increasing wind and sea as the yacht moves out into the bay.
“The wind was very fresh from the S. W. during the whole of the race.”
Sailing Committee report, U.S. Nautical Magazine and Naval Journal, vol. V (1856), p. 17
“The yachts lay with springs on their cables, head to the wind, which was fresh about S.S.W.,”
R. B. F., attributed to Robert Bennet Forbes aboard Julia; reprinted by Llewellyn Howland in The American Neptune 10 (1950), p. 231
“As we jumped out into the Bay the wind and sea increased, giving the Julia just as much as was necessary for comfort, and slightly more than was necessary for speed.”
R. B. F., attributed to Robert Bennet Forbes aboard Julia; The American Neptune 10 (1950), p. 232
These accounts support vigorous sailing. They preserve different wordings and directions, not a single averaged wind. Fresh is not converted into a speed or a Beaufort force. The report from farther out in the bay cannot measure the waves at Lane’s chosen viewpoint. The Forbes attribution comes from Llewellyn Howland’s 1950 introduction; the original newspaper issue has not been identified.
Open the contemporary wind report
Step 3 · Rain on the event date
A rain total cannot time the sky
The digitized New Bedford register assigns 0.45 inches (11.4 mm) of rain to 8 August 1856. Its field is PRCP-99: the metadata defines 99 as an unknown observation time. The accumulation boundary is therefore unspecified here. The entry does not establish whether it rained at the starting line or during the race.
The Rodman-family station was probably at County and Spring Streets. MRCC marks its position as estimated. This is a town record, not an observation aboard a yacht. Temperature cells are blank on the event date.
At his farm in Westport, Henry Smith recorded a pleasant south-westerly morning. Later in the same entry he mentions a thunder shower, after noting that he finished stacking grain at five. The wording does not give the shower an exact time. It is a separate land witness in a modern volunteer transcription, not proof of a shower at New Bedford or of the cloud Lane painted.
“A.M. wind SW and pleasant.”
Henry Smith, Westport, 8 August 1856; Westport Historical Society volunteer transcription (2025), p. 189
“Had a thunder shower from SW.”
Henry Smith, Westport, 8 August 1856; Westport Historical Society volunteer transcription (2025), p. 189
| Register date | Rain, inches | Observation time |
|---|---|---|
| 7 August 1856 | 0.00 | Unknown (code 99) |
| 8 August 1856 | 0.45 | Unknown (code 99) |
| 9 August 1856 | 0.00 | Unknown (code 99) |
The neighbouring entries are shown to make the dated record inspectable. No total is spread across hours, no climate rank is assigned, and no modern normal is substituted. Fort Adams, a separate station near Newport, has a dated row with all observations blank on the event date. It supplies no weather value for this study.
Step 4 · The claim tested
The sailing is supported; the exact sky remains open
The race accounts give documentary support to the catalogue’s reading of difficult sailing. The rain entry adds evidence for the date on land, while Smith’s morning and shower show why a whole day must not be treated as one unchanging scene. None fixes the clouds or waves at the selected starting-line moment.
What Lane selected. This canvas concentrates on the start and gives foreground space to the spectator boats. The records follow a longer event, including rougher water outside the harbour. Likely later studio work leaves room for selection and recollection, but does not by itself prove invented weather. Catalogue commentary; Ronnberg, 1988.
What we cannot establish. No verified sketch-to-canvas comparison here shows that Lane enlarged the waves, changed the wind or added a particular cloud. The event is dated; the exact observation, execution session and any alteration of the weather remain unknown.
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.
- Newport Art Museum, American Art
sha256 5e4957700c18e27fe0701c5c8ce5c5e47bdbb9da72a66d3c5a48ca3990395d7e - Text extraction of museum record
sha256 899577f2d2dedeff120d76c780bcc16cb7f0492af287212f54b8a148768e7440 - Cape Ann Museum, Fitz Henry Lane Online, inv. 396
sha256 6073014b7b883e35ef80cd8deaaab770d83bbc1a40f7526cdd5a1f6564987f42 - Text extraction of inv. 396
sha256 c28a0a6c882188321cf06fc144600c5f42ea7385850279c861aaf6184f88bbdf - Cape Ann Museum, Sloop with Study of Masthead Rigging, inv. 188
sha256 4810dff809a12fea89713d32778b787c6ac5f3fe980332709a6a61301d2d1ed0 - Erik Ronnberg, in Paintings by Fitz Hugh Lane (National Gallery of Art, 1988)
sha256 64e177c5f3687f6989b4903ab1c07fc0e749ab87e732cc29b78ee4d19d85ad6c - Text extraction of NGA catalogue
sha256 aeb97426baf2377fb45c08bc680f12fdebb45d9534477df39eae68ee19f9432f - U.S. Nautical Magazine and Naval Journal, vol. V (1856)
sha256 659bb53d773dd43439eccb977977ad007f1ccab4295425fb95b2f2baf8f8bca8 - R. B. F., attributed to Robert Bennet Forbes; The American Neptune 10 (1950)
sha256 739cd453e0fe593da06dd0546b559feefd3f653e6659cb3ede6b950e5042f7af - Nephos selected transcription of the two race accounts
sha256 18aded945b8bb4db3e915307f4d074a0ba17b51800ca1bc7c79487c0be351aef - Henry Smith journal, Westport Historical Society volunteer transcription (2025)
sha256 d7106bbfe850f9aee392cebe0f56869dae328bd378033b468a9fe9361f4bf4c1 - Text extraction of Henry Smith journal
sha256 f547b2cfe1351e8d7afc9e2a4a5f6a2d848758d15743d27d04b136b4110f92fa - Westport Historical Society, Henry Smith journal background
sha256 427249760dd19733389b9afcb19d14c9fa4ee5b6a9b43a4fe944e8beb630cb28 - New Bedford daily register, NOAA/CDMP and MRCC
sha256 be932224fa85cf75ec3d62cd4168ae0ecc888aea36df7d483a3798a8a7a43598 - MRCC, New Bedford station metadata
sha256 83728b65e0e4ab21cc2c04aba070461a29b455ff13ca017026af88740380c315 - Fort Adams daily register, NOAA/CDMP and MRCC
sha256 7e32d603ee908ceb72ef614a1bf8f921882bcbfaa81e4da12545ed0b49450763 - MRCC, Fort Adams station metadata
sha256 8fdaaab8d38923766d3595ecbd98e4ac093b383bb39e466ce9c47886a9f13362