What can artists teach us about faraway places?

Martin Johnson Heade

Martin Johnson Heade is one of a number of American artists who have been grouped together as “luminists.” Although these artists never worked as a school—they did not necessarily know one another—their work shares a number of formal characteristics: pronounced horizontal format, absence of visible brushstrokes, and close attention to the qualities and effects of light.

At the painting’s center, a brilliant green and fuchsia hummingbird, painted life size, perches on the leaf of a Cattleya orchid. The orchid, a starburst of cotton-candy pink, is rooted onto the branch of a tree that is almost overgrown with moss and vines. The branch extends back and around to frame the bird and flower against the fully realized landscape of a South American mountain lake under a humid and stormy sky.

Medium

Oil on canvas

Credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd

Item ID

1979.7.49

Dimensions

15 1/8 x 20 1/4 in. (38.4 x 51.4 cm)

Date

ca. 1885

Country

United States