Owl's Head, Penobscot Bay, Maine
Fitz Henry Lane, 1862
A quiet Maine bay. One headland. Sailboats resting under soft light. Nothing loud. Just water, air, and the long hush of Penobscot.
About this work
Owl's Head, Penobscot Bay, Maine is an 1862 oil by Fitz Henry Lane in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and probably his best-known work. A single boatman stands on the shore looking across a glassy bay at evening; a schooner rests on the water, and the profile of Owl's Head, with its tiny lighthouse, is silhouetted against a pink and pale blue sky. Lane, born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1804, painted harbors and ships along the East Coast from Maine's Penobscot Bay to San Juan, Puerto Rico. His style was later called Luminism for its pervasive light. The Fitz Henry Lane catalogue raisonné, adapting the Museum of Fine Arts' own text, says he greatly simplified the popular idyllic harbor view: the viewer looks at a working coastal town but sees few details of daily business, only the boatman gazing at an apparently empty bay, enveloped by nature. It notes the picture's geometric clarity and simplicity. The canvas, 15 3/4 by 26 1/8 inches, is inscribed on the back "Owl's Head – Penobscot Bay, by F.H. Lane, 1862." It came to the museum in 1948 as a bequest of Martha C. Karolik for the M. and M. Karolik Collection of American Paintings.
Sources: Fitz Henry Lane Online (Cape Ann Museum): Owl's Head, Penobscot Bay, Maine, inv. 47 · Wikipedia: Fitz Henry Lane
Print facts
- Native resolution
- 6,376 × 3,832 px
- Sharp at 150 ppi up to
- 42 × 25 in
- Sizes
- Small (20 × 12 in) · $100 · 319 ppi
Medium (24 × 14 in) · $150 · 266 ppi
Large (36 × 22 in) · $300 · 174 ppi - Price includes
- Frame and US shipping · 14–21 days · 30-day returns
FAQ
Where can I buy a framed print of Owl's Head, Penobscot Bay, Maine?
Here. Owl's Head, Penobscot Bay, Maine is available as a framed print in three sizes: Small (20 × 12 in) for $100, Medium (24 × 14 in) for $150 and Large (36 × 22 in) for $300. Prices include the frame and US shipping; delivery takes 14–21 days, with 30-day returns.
What size works best for Owl's Head, Penobscot Bay, Maine?
The file is 6,376 × 3,832 px, so every size is sharp: even Large (36 × 22 in) prints at 174 ppi. Choose Large (36 × 22 in) for a large wall; Small (20 × 12 in) suits a narrower space.
Is it legal to print Owl's Head, Penobscot Bay, Maine?
Yes. Owl's Head, Penobscot Bay, Maine is in the public domain: its copyright, if it ever had one, expired long ago. In the United States a faithful photograph of a public-domain painting does not create a new copyright (Bridgeman v. Corel, 1999), so the image can be printed and sold freely.
