HEADE, Martin Johnson

(b. 1819 Lumberville, d. 1904 Saint Augustine)

American painter. He studied briefly with Edward Hicks and in Europe, and later traveled in Central and South America. During his long career he painted a great variety of subjects: portraits, luminous salt marsh scenes, seascapes (often with thunder storms), tropical landscapes, hummingbird and orchid pictures, and floral still-lifes.

Heade is associated with American luminism, particularly in his uniquely lit canvases of coming thunderstorms. He painted dramatic seascapes and landscapes of New England. In his nature studies, scientifically exact birds and plants are set against poetic backgrounds in eerie colours. His notable paintings include Orchids and Hummingbirds (Detroit Instute of Arts) and Approaching Storm: Beach near Newport (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).

Approaching Storm: Beach near Newport

Hede executed this sever scene of a thunderstorm at Point Judith near Newport as part of a series of compositions that depicted ominous weather at sea.

Send Postcard Learn More

Spouting Rock, Newport

Newport was a favourite location with the East Coast painters. They were attracted to the beauty of the landscape, which they began to paint from life. Heade’s painting is one of the most representative examples of Luminism, a style which emerged in the 1860s within American landscape painting. The term describes the work of a number of artists who, although they did not form a specific group or school, all produced a type of landscape painting devoted to rivers or coastal scenes and based on the effects of light. Alongside Heade, Lane was another important Luminist.

Send Postcard Learn More