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Mary B. Mellen
(American, 1819 - 1886)
Moonlight Fishing Scene (Halfway Rock)
Alternate Title(s)
- Half Way Rock
- Moonlight Harbor Scene
1854
18 × 26 3/16 in. (45.7 × 66.5 cm)
80.3.19
© artist, artist's estate, or other rights holders
Gift of Amanda K. Berls, 1980
On view
For a long time, Mary Mellen was only known as a “copyist,” due to the fact that she painted versions of acclaimed artist Fitz Henry Lane’s marine paintings. She and Lane worked side-by-side, with styles so similar that it is difficult to tell the work of one artist from the other. Mellen improved her skills in this informal apprenticeship with Lane. In this painting, the moonlight seen through the parting clouds illuminates Halfway Rock in Maine’s Casco Bay and its lighthouse, which is curiously dark. The scene appears particularly dangerous as a fishing boat is precariously close to the rocky ledge.