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Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904)

Aliases: Martin Johnson Heed

Professions: Bird painter; Painter; Naval painter; Landscape painter; Porträtmaler; Still life painter; Flower painter

  • MARTIN JOHNSON HEADE 1819-1904 SUNNY DAY ON THE MARSH (NEWBURYPORT MEADOWS)

  • Martin Johnson Heade 1819-1904 , TWO "THORN-TAILS" (Langsdorffs Thorn-tail, Brazil) oil on linen mounted on board

  • Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904)

  • Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904)

Martin Johnson Heade Biography

(b Lumberville, PA, 11 Aug 1819; d St Augustine, FL, 4 Sept 1904). American painter. He began as a portrait painter, working in a primly selfconscious and laboured limner tradition; among his portraits are a small number of real distinction, such as the Portrait of a Man Holding a Cane (1851; priv. col.). As with Fitz Hugh Lane, whose career suggests points of contact with Heade, his work was meticulous and restrained in handling and without painterly effects. Only in the early 1860s did Heade turn to a subject well suited to his artistic personality: the salt marshes of Newburyport, RI (e.g. Sunrise on the Marshes , 1863; Flint, MI, Inst. F.A.). He worked with a limited range of pictorial elements—haystacks, clouds, sky, water and a flatly receding earth—to create a precise spatial structure within which to explore the fleeting light effects of a coastal environment. Heade did not rely on rapid oil sketches or drawings carrying colour notations of the sort done by his friend Frederic Church; yet he remained responsive to atmospheric variations, transforming a relatively prosaic landscape into a visually heightened field of subtly shifting perceptions. The eerie ‘luminist’ precision of his landscapes and his independence from conventional composition contribute to the unsettling impression his work makes, as well as to its appeal to modern sensibilities.

Grove Art excerpts - Electronic ©2003, Oxford Art Online

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Martin Johnson Heade Sold at AuctionView all Martin Johnson Heade Sold at Auction

  • MARTIN JOHNSON HEADE 1819-1904 TWO HUMMINGBIRDS, TWO TYPES OF ORCHIDS AND A PALM TREE, Martin Johnson Heade, Click for value View Details
  • Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904), Martin Johnson Heade, Click for value View Details
  • Martin Johnson Heade 1819-1904 , The Old Shipwreck, Martin Johnson Heade, Click for value View Details
  • MARTIN JOHNSON HEADE - HAYING ON THE MARSH, Martin Johnson Heade, Click for value View Details
  • Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904), Martin Johnson Heade, Click for value View Details
  • Property from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection MARTIN JOHNSON HEADE (1819-1904) v Orchid and Two, Martin Johnson Heade, Click for value View Details

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