Although known for his view of the harbors of Boston and Gloucester, Fitz Hugh Lane was equally inspired by the Maine landscape. It became the subject of much of his most memorable and intensely poetic studio work from the 1850s until his death. His home base for many of his visits was the town of Castine, visible in the distance, across the harbor. One of the greatest of American marine painters, Lane imposed a sense of stillness and artificiality over the landscape and positions the ships in the harbor as if laying them out on a measured grid. Enlivening the quiet town and harbor is the almost theatrical expanse of sky, which contains a variety of clouds types and a range of light effects.