The Cape Ann Museum has recently acquired a rare oil painting by Fitz Henry Lane (1804–1865), Untitled (Floral Still Life), 1849. The painting was cleaned in late November and is now undergoing additional restoration and conservation work on its original frame.
This early and distinctive work in Lane’s oeuvre depicts an arrangement of flowers gathered from a garden on Middle Street in Gloucester. The acquisition will be fully restored and displayed as part of the Museum’s main campus reopening in spring 2026, following a 16-month renovation. The Museum holds one of the world’s most extensive collections of Lane’s paintings and maintains the online Fitz Henry Lane catalogue raisonné, which has recently been updated for improved accessibility and ease of use, making it simpler for scholars, students, and the public to explore Lane’s works.
During Thanksgiving Week, art conservator Lisa Mehlin of Essex, MA, cleaned the painting at the Museum’s CAM Green location in Gloucester. Restoration of the frame is being carried out by Boston-area conservator Wenda Kochanowski over the coming weeks.
“It’s remarkable what the cleaning revealed, bringing out the vibrancy of color and the delicate detail of Lane’s floral depiction,” said Museum Director Oliver Barker. “We look forward to seeing the original frame restored and the painting hanging in the Museum when our main campus reopens next spring.”
The flowers Lane painted came from a house that once stood on the property at 44 Middle Street in Gloucester. Although the existing house on the site was built in 1883, an earlier residence occupied the property during Lane’s lifetime; no known images of that earlier home survive. In Gloucester Recollected, author Alfred Mansfield Brooks discusses the Stacy/Rogers family who lived there, noting the garden and the Lane paintings that once adorned the interior.
A letter, discovered on the reverse of the recently gifted work, detailed the delight that Harriet P. Stevens felt when she received the painting as a gift from Lane: “I cannot find words to express my thanks for the beautiful picture which you have presented to me.”
Good Morning Gloucester 