Martin Johnson Heade was an American painter known for his salt marsh landscapes, seascapes, depictions of tropical birds and flowers and other still lifes. He was a central figure in American luminism, a movement primarily concerned with the painting of light.
Background
Martin Johnson Heade was born on August 11, 1819 in Lumberville, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of a storekeeper.
Until the mid-1850s, his family ran what is now called the Lumberville Store and Post Office, the village's sole general store. The family spelling of the name was Heed.
Education
Martin Johnson Heade received his early training in painting from the folk artist Edward Hicks and possibly from Edward's cousin, Thomas Hicks. About 1838, Heade went to Rome to study; during the 2 years there, he painted several portraits, which were exhibited later in New York City and Philadelphia, United States.
Career
Martin Johnson Heade first exhibited his work in 1841, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, United States, and again in 1843 at the National Academy of Design in New York, United States.
Heade’s earliest works were genre paintings and portraits of notable figures, such as American military and political leader Sam Houston (1847) and the Rev. Noah Hunt Schenck (before 1849). He began exhibiting regularly in 1848. The same year, Heade left for Rome, where he painted his only extant genre piece "The Roman Newsboys". A year later Heade travelled to St. Louis and Chicago; by 1854 he had moved east to Trenton, New Jersey. Later he was at work in Providence and along the Rhode Island coast, where he painted his first landscapes in a somewhat hard and flat style.
A new phase of development came in 1859, when Heade took a studio in New York City. There he formed a close friendship with the artist Frederic E. Church. Probably under his influence, Heade's work during the next decade became more dramatic, his subjects more exotic, and his colors more intense. In the early 1860s, Heade travelled often along the New England coast in search of subjects to paint, and he found them most frequently among the salt marshes. During a journey inland, he painted one of his finest pictures of this period "Lake George" (1862). Heade's luminist style was then characterized by firm draftsmanship, cool and clear lighting, and a sense of timeless suspension.
While painting along the Massachusetts coast, he met the Reverend James C. Fletcher, who persuaded him to go to Brazil. There in 1863 Heade began a new type of painting - the scientific depiction of hummingbirds in their natural habitat.
By 1865, Heade was back in New York. Two years later he was painting in Central America. During this period Heade began to paint still lifes, especially flowers - roses, orchids, and magnolias - an interest he maintained throughout the rest of his career.
In the late 1870s, he settled down in New York City for a longer period. His style became looser and more painterly, although he retained his sure sense for color, atmosphere, and texture. By 1883, he had bought a house in St. Augustine, Florida.
For the most part he spent the last 20 years of his life in Florida. He still travelled, continuing to paint his familiar subjects up to his death on September 4, 1904 in St. Augustine, Florida, United States. He is buried at the Evergreens Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, United States.
Still Life with Apple Blossoms in a Nautilus Shell
Rocks in New England
Giant Magnolias on a Blue Velvet Cloth
Orchids and Hummingbirds
Sailing off the Coast
Orchids and Spray Orchids with Hummingbird
Portrait of a Man
The Great Florida Marsh
Passion Flowers with Hummingbirds
Haystacks on the Newburyport Marshes
Blue Morpho Butterfly
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Theodore Stebbins, Jr.: "One of the things that has always made the study of Heade's work exciting is the way his paintings continue to turn up in garage sales and other unlikely places all over the country, in a manner that the paintings of Frederic E. Church and John F. Kensett do not."