Richard Lane

Richard Lane was born in East Meadow, New York in 1954.  He began to develop an interest in Marine Art and History at a very young age, spending summers in Cape Cod and Nantucket, Massachusetts.  He studied fine art and illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.  Richard graduated in 1977, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.  After art school Richard worked for ten years at a decorative design studio in New York City specializing in Trompel’ Oeil, murals and original oil paintings.  In 1994 he gave up his career in the decorative arts to devote full time to painting his favorite subject.

Richard’s keen interest in American Nautical History has been the inspiration for his work as a fine artist. It is the romantic yet powerful yachts of past America’s Cup races, as well as the graceful fishing schooners of Gloucester and Boston that he so effectively captures on canvas.  He does extensive research for his paintings, using museum ship models, old photographs from museum archives and actual blue prints of the boats themselves.  Fifteen years ago he started building wooden ship models from scratch so he could understand the construction of the boats and the mechanics of the rigging.  Richard is a member of the “Ship Model Society of Northern New Jersey”.  He strives for absolute accuracy in his paintings.  A years work on average produces a maximum of 8 – 9 canvases.

At the December 3, 2008 Christie’s New York Maritime sale a 30” x 48” historical painting by Richard painted in 2006, sold for a record price of $27,500!

"The Discovery of the HMS Resolute by the US Whaler, George Henry - 1855"

On May 19th 1845, two ships sailed from England, Sir John Franklin on the HMS Erebus and captain Francis Crozier, another arctic veteran in command of the HMS Terror. Their mission was to find the north west passage. They never came home.

Toward the end of 1847, anxiety in England began to mount about the fate of the Franklin expedition. In 1848 the British admiralty sent out three separate rescue expeditions. None of these expeditions found any trace of Franklin or his ships. In 1849, England was by now seriously alarmed about Franklins disappearance and the public wanted action. More expeditions were sent but met no success. In 1852 the Lords of the Admiralty, paying more attention to public opinion then their own judgment dispatched another fleet of five ships to continue the search for Franklin. One of these ships was the Resolute, commanded by captain Henry Kellett. Once in the arctic the Resolute paired off with a smaller steamer Intrepid and were soon locked in the ice for two winters near Dealy Island. The commander of the expedition fleet, Sir Edward Belcher, had wintered down in Wellington channel with the HMS Assistance and HMS Pioneer. Belcher ,after two winters had enough of the cold and called off the search. He sent orders to Captain Kellett and Captain M’Clintock of the Intreped to abandon their ships and to travel 250 miles to join them at their ships for the journey home. Kellett was devastated, he had two strong ships with plenty of provisions with a good chance of being free from the ice when summer arrived. He had to follow orders and the ships were abandoned.

 In 1855, Captain James Buddington of the American whale ship George Henry found a abandoned ghost ship which turned out to be the HMS Resolute, 1200 miles from where it was originally abandoned. Buddington divided his crew between the two vessels and both returned to New London. The owners of George Henry received $40,000 prize money for the Resolute from the US government. It was decided to return the Resolute to England. The Resolute was towed by a steamer tug to the Brooklyn naval yard, where shipwrights and craftsmen refitted her down to the smallest detail. Resolute was repainted from stem to stern. All of her sails, cordage, flags and store were restored or replaced. When finished the ship was sailed to Portsmouth England, a present to England from the US. The arrival of the Resolute caused a huge sensation in England and helped cement the Anglo American ties for years to come.

In 1880 the Resolute was finally broken up, but some of her best timbers were saved. A wonderfully carved desk was made out of some of the timbers and was given to President Rutherford B. Hayes as a gift from Queen Victoria of Great Britain. The desk made from the timbers of the Resolute still remains in the oval office today.

Richard says, “To construct this painting, much research was done. For the whale ship George Henry I used a model placed in a sandbox, a whale ship from that time period. I also used construction plans from Mystic Seaport Museum. The book, “Resolute” by Martin W. Sandler was a great source of information.”

 

“Columbia Crossing the Finish Line, Shamrock II Behind”
Americas Cup, Sept 28, 1901

On October 2nd 1900, Sir Thomas Lipton from the Royal Ulster Yacht Club sent a challenge to the New York Yacht Club, asking for a series of races for the following year. Lipton went to George Watson to design his new yacht, “Shamrock II”. No expense was to be spared on this Shamrock. The boat was plated with a new alloy called immadium, light but strong. Her overall length was 189 feet and had a waterline length of 89 feet. She carried 14,027 square feet of sail, she was, up to that time the most extreme type of racing machine.

As soon as the challenge was received and accepted, Nat Herreshoff was called again to design a new defender. The winner of the 1899 Americas Cup series was Herreshoff’s yacht Columbia. Herreshoff’s new boat the “Constitution” went into the trails against his old boat Columbia and another yacht Independence. After many races Columbia clearly demonstrated that she was the fastest in all around weather conditions. She was chosen by the Americas Cup Committee on September 5th to meet Shamrock II. Columbia had an overall length of 131feet and a waterline length of 90 feet. She carried 13,135 square feet of sail.