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Catalogue Entry

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Photo: Boston Imaging Digital Solutions; © Cape Ann Museum
inv. 122
Two Oxen
1850s
Graphite on paper
8 x 9 1/4 in. (20.3 x 23.5 cm)
Inscribed lower right (in pencil): Lane del.
Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass., Gift of Samuel H. Mansfield, 1927 (485.56)
Commentary

There were many oxen in Gloucester; they were used for small-scale farming and for hauling granite as well as other loads. On this sheet, Lane sketched a few oxen as well as the yoke and wheels of a wagon or cart. This and Three Cows and Temple, 1850s (inv. 123) are some of the only studies of animals among his drawings.

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Historical Materials

Below is historical information related to the Lane work above. To see complete information on a subject on the Historical Materials page, click on the subject name (in bold and underlined).
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object
Ballast cart
unknown
Wood. Iron hardware and wheel rims.
12' 5"l. x 7' I" w. x 4' 9" h.
19th and early 20th c.
Cape Ann Museum. Gift of Thomas A. Robinson, 1983 (2344)

While heavily constructed to transport ballast stone from local beaches, this style of cart was used for many purposes. It is otherwise identical in design to horse-drawn carts depicted in Lane’s paintings.

View related catalogue entries (5) »

Filed under: Objects »

Provenance (Information known to date; research ongoing.)
the Artist, Gloucester, Mass.
Joseph L. Stevens, Jr., Gloucester, Mass.
Samuel H. Mansfield, Gloucester, Mass.
Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass., 1927
Marks & Labels

Marks: Inscribed upper left (in red ink): 56 [numbering system used by curator A. M. Brooks upon Samuel H. Mansfield's donation of the drawings to the Cape Ann Museum]

Exhibition History
1993–94 Cape Ann Museum
Cape Ann Historical Association, Gloucester, Massachusetts, Training the Eye and Hand: Fitz Hugh Lane and Nineteenth Century American Drawing Books, September 17, 1993–January 29, 1994. (Exhibition catalogue: Cape Ann 1993).
Published References
Cape Ann 1974
Paintings and Drawings by Fitz Hugh Lane. Gloucester, MA: Cape Ann Historical Association, 1974, fig. 40.
Related Historical Materials
Ballast cart
Record last updated July 14, 2016. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: "Two Oxen, 1850s (inv. 122)." In Fitz Henry Lane Online. Gloucester, MA: Cape Ann Museum. www.fitzhenrylaneonline.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=122 (accessed on August 24, 2025).