: A glowing Fitz Hugh Lane painting, "Manchester Harbor," whose
existence has long been known but whose whereabouts was not,
brought a record breaking $5,506,000 at Skinner's this past
Friday, November 19. Bidding on the signed 1853 painting opened
at a modest $475,000 and it evolved into a duel between two phone
bidders and a dealer in the room. Michael N. Altman bidding in
the room prevailed. He was buying for a client.
The picture, an exquisitely detailed rendering of the harbor at
sunrise, a vista that can be seen today, is considered by many to
be the best of Lane's work. Skinner's paintings director and vice
president Colleene Fesko said simply, "It is museum quality."
Not only was the painting a record for Lane whose last picture
sold for $1.5 million less, it is also a record price for any
object sold in New England. It is also the most expensive object
ever sold at Skinner. The sale totaled slightly less than $8
million, Skinner's best ever.
The painting was consigned by a West Coast couple in whose Boston
family the painting had descended since its original purchase
from the artist. They got in touch with Fesko who established
herself as the go-to person for Fitz Hugh Lane with the 1997
record of $3.85 million for "View of West Beach, Beverly,
Massachusetts, Sunset" and a prior (November 1996) record of
$3,302,500 for Lane's 1858 "Sunset at Gloucester Harbor." A
complete report of the sale will appear in a future issue.
-FM
