Martin Johnson Heade

(American, 1819–1904)

Martin Johnson Heade was an American painter who was associated with the Hudson River School. Unlike most other members of the group, Heade regularly chose the unassuming motifs of inlets or marshlands for his paintings, as in his Approaching Thunder Storm (1859). He also produced a number of botanical still lifes throughout his career, including those of orchids, magnolia blossoms, and various rose species. Born on August 11, 1819 in Lumberville, PA, he received his earliest training from the naïve painter Edward Hicks. Around 1838, Heade traveled to Europe, settling in Rome for two years. After a second trip to Europe a decade later, the artist shifted his attention from portraiture to landscape painting. Later, while living in New York, Heade befriended Frederic Edwin Church, who furthered his p preoccupation with the specific effects of light and weather upon a landscape. During the 1860s, Heade traveled on three painting expeditions to South America. On these trips, he directed his gaze on brightly colored hummingbirds and flowers set against the jungle canopy instead of the distant vistas favored by his compatriots. Despite exhibiting in New York, Heade never attained the acceptance of the art establishment, so he settled in Florida in 1883. The artist died on September 4, 1904 in St. Augustine, FL. Today, his works are held in the collections of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, among others.