Catalogue Entry

Named for a wrong location (and a then-defunct mill), this scene actually depicts the Bray mill on Mill River in West Gloucester, looking north-easterly to the Annisquam River with Annisquam Village in the distance. Two maps (see below) are necessary to understand the topography and direction of this view. The earlier (H. F. Walling) map omits Rust Island, the dark point of land in left background which faces opposite Ferry Hill in the U.S. Geological Survey map. The latter map also shows more clearly the tidal marshes which are mostly covered by high spring tides, making the Annisquam River appear much wider.

The part of the Mill River in Lane’s painting is on a rapid descent from the high ground which hides the port of Gloucester from view. Note the railroad cut in the hillside at far right, where a steam locomotive is emerging. The road in the right middle ground is Essex Avenue which can still be traveled today, though through much-changed surroundings.

The saw mill at center foreground is identified as owned by D. and J. Bray, members of a large family who mostly lived and worked in West Gloucester. Their ancestry has been traced back to Thomas Bray, a ship carpenter who married Maria Wilson at Gloucester in 1646 — the earliest recorded date of his presence in this area. Further information on the saw mill and its owners has not been found. This was a large family of laborers and skilled workers who were unlikely to spend precious savings on a painting. It therefore seems more likely that this setting inspired Lane to depict it on speculation, or on commission by a client who lived elsewhere but had some appreciation or fond memories of West Gloucester, particularly now that the train line came through, completed just a few years before this painting.

This is one of Lane’s rare early landscapes where he shows his extraordinary skill with the variegated foliage that fills nearly half the painting. The loading in of the logs to be milled, the wagon plodding by on the road, the ducks on the pond, the cow grazing on the roadside all add up to a wonderful genre scene of an ordinary day in the life of the still rural West Gloucester.

– Erik Ronnberg

• Subject Types: 
  • Foliage »
  • Landscape »
• Landscape Types: 
  • Farm / Buildingscape »
  • Field / Meadow »
  • River »
• Cape Ann Locales: 
  • Annisquam River / Light »
  • West Gloucester »
• Animals & People: 
  • Cows »
  • Ducks »
• Objects: 
  • Railroad »
  • Steam Locomotive »
  • Train »
• Building Types: 
  • Mill »