Fitz Henry Lane and the Compromised Landscape, 1848-1865.

In this article, the author discusses the work of the American landscape and marine painter Fitz Henry Lane. Focusing on the period between 1848 and 1865, the author argues that Lane's paintings, especially those he created while on numerous trips to the state of Maine, indirectly address the precarious political situation in the U.S. in the years leading up to the Civil War. More specifically, it is argued that various political issues, including the virtues of free as opposed to slave labor, the importance of cardinal directionality with respect to questions of national territory, and the need to heal a divided nation, structure some of the most important formal and iconographic features of Lane's work at this time.