Organized in conjunction with the exhibition Fitz Henry Lane and Mary Blood Mellen: Old Mysteries and New Discoveries at Cape Ann Historical Museum and Spanierman Gallery, the Fitz Henry Lane and Mary Blood Mellen Scholars’ Convening provided an opportunity for academics, curators, conservators, art dealers, and engaged collectors to investigate the vexing attribution issues and new theories put forward by Fitz Henry Lane expert John Wilmerding, Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. The exhibition sought to reassign the authorship of several of Lane’s paintings to Mary Blood Mellen, Lane’s long-time student and sometime collaborator.
The convening officially concluded with a report of the day’s findings published as a supplement to the exhibition catalogue. As an opportunity to reconsider long-held art historical assumptions and put forward exciting new theories ripe for further investigation, the Fitz Henry Lane and Mary Blood Mellen Scholars’ Convening created a venue for exploring and debating fresh scholarship in American art history. As another result of the convening, the Terra Foundation commissioned a report by independent conservator Henry Travers Newton, which determined with a considerable degree of accuracy the authorship of Brace’s Rock, Brace’s Cove as solely the work of Lane.
Fitz Henry Lane, Brace's Rock, Brace's Cove, 1864. Oil on canvas, image: 10 1/4 x 15 1/4 in. (26.0 x 38.7 cm), frame: 14 1/4 x 19 1/4 in. (36.2 x 48.9 cm), Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1999.83.
