Lumber Schooners at Evening on Penobscot Bay

Fitz Henry Lane

National Gallery of Art

Near the center of the painting, a masted wooden ship floats against a vibrant sunset that fades from lilac purple to carnation pink along the horizon line, which comes about a quarter of the way up this horizontal landscape. The boat is angled away from us and to our left with one sail tied up near the top of one of the two tall masts. Four people stand on the lumber-filled deck and tie up other sails. A second boat floats in the distance, its rigging and masts silhouetted against the vivid pink sky. The water is deep blue along the bottom edge of the canvas and lightens where it meets the hills along the horizon. Slivers of wispy slate-gray clouds sweep across the sky.