Martin Johnson Heade
(1819-1904)

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Martin Johnson Heade was an American painter known for his landscapes and seascapes. Heade was born in Lumberville, Pennsylvania, along the Delaware River. Heade remained in rural Pennsylvnia for much of his life, running the family general store.

Art historians currently like to set Heade apart from the Hudson River School since many of his paintings were not even landscapes. Heade did numerous paintings of tropical birds and portraits. Heade was more interested in documenting the natural light and creating emotion than creating photo-realistic landscapes.

It is believed that Heade studied under a local folk-artist named Edward Hicks and painted portraits in his Pennsylvania town. Heade eventually left for Rome, studying and painting abroad for two years. When Heade returned from Europe he exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and moved to New York in 1859.

Heade went on many painting trips, working alongside artists in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and in New York State. Heade worked in a New York City studio with many artists of the Hudson River School. Heade became interested in the tropics and travelled to Brazil. Heade hoped to publish his illustrations of his Brazilian hummingbirds but was unable to finance the project.

Heade did not lose momentum in his interest in the tropics and travelled to Florida and many countries in Central America and to Jamaica. It was Heade’s primary passion to paint the tropical flora and birds. In Florida Heade painted may still lifes and Magnolia blossoms on velvet. Not many other artists of Heade’s time were prolific in painting landscapes and still-lifes.

Heade’s work is now in prestigious collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

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