Fitz Henry Lane (born Nathaniel Rogers Lane; also formerly, mistakenly, known as Fitz Hugh Lane) (December 19, 1804 – August 14, 1865) was an American painter and printmaker of a style that would later be called Luminism, for its use of pervasive light.
Biography
Fitz Henry Lane was born on December 19, 1804, in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Lane was christened Nathaniel Rogers Lane on March 17, 1805, and would remain known as such until he was 27. It was not until March 13, 1832, that the state of Massachusetts would officially grant Lane's own formal request (made in a letter dated December 26, 1831) to change his name from Nathaniel Rogers to Fitz Henry Lane.
As with practically all aspects of Lane's life, the subject of his name is one surrounded by much confusion—it was not until 2005 that historians discovered that they had been wrongly referring to the artist as Fitz Hugh, as opposed to his chosen Fitz Henry. The reasons behind Lane's decision to change his name, and for choosing the name he did, are still unclear; one suggestion is that he did it "to differentiate himself from the well-known miniature painter Nathaniel Rodgers".
