Martin Johnson Heade 1819-1904 | Prolific american painter

Martin Johnson Heade was a prolific american painter, known for his salt marsh landscapes, seascapes, portraits of tropical birds such as humming birds, as well as lotus blossoms and other still lifes. 

His painting style and subject matter, while derived from the romanticism of the time, is regarded by art historians as a significant departure from that of his peers. Heade was born in Lumberville, Pennsylvania, the son of a storekeeper. 

He studied with Edward Hicks, and possibly with Thomas Hicks. He travelled to Europe several times as a young man, became an intinerant artist on American shores, and exhibited in Philadelphia in 1841 and New York in 1843.

Martin Johnson Heade 1819-1904 | Prolific american painter

Martin Johnson Heade born in Bucks county, Pa. He began his career as a portrait-painter, studied in Italy, traveled in the west, and then settled in Boston as a landscape-painter. This brought him into relations with Rev. James C. Fletcher, who induced him to visit Brazil with a view to preparing an illustrated work on hum-ruing-birds. The difficulties then existing in prop­erly chromo-lithographing his fine designs caused the abandonment of the work, but the pictures were purchased by Sir Morton Peto and taken to London. Mr. Heade has painted many western and tropical scenes, also views on the Hudson and the Massachusetts coast, which are characterized by rich effects of color and light, and by poetic sentiment. His studio is in New York city. Among his best-known works are "High Tide on the Marshes", "Nicaragua., Off the California Coast" (which was exhibited at the Centennial ex­hibition at Philadelphia in 1876), and "South American Scene." He has recently sent to exhibi­tions of the Academy "On the St. John's River, Florida " (1885), and "Sunset, Florida" (1886).