Lot Essay
Two Green Breasted Hummingbirds, one of the approximately twenty paintings that Martin Johnson Heade executed during his trip to Brazil from 1863-64, is evidence of the artist's extraordinary creative development during this period. As Dr. Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. notes: "Heade's great burst of activity in 1863 was undoubtedly caused by his new desire to go to Brazil, with the many paintings designed to raise funds for this purpose. It is worth noting that however commercial his aim may have been, nothing better could have happened for his art, for he developed considerably that year." (Martin Johnson Heade, College Park, Maryland, 1969, np)
Heade's early fascination with the mystical hummingbird had astounding ramifications for his artistic career. "He had long been an ardent lover of nature, a sportsman, and advocate of bird sanctuaries a keen student of nature's wild life. In early childhood he had made the acquaintance of the hummingbird, of which in later life he writes: 'A few years after my first appearance in this breathing world I was attacked by the all-absorbing hummingbird craze, and it has never left me since; with the natural result that what is known about them I know, and what I don't know about them others do--or think they do. There is probably no member of the feathered tribe...that has been so thoroughly written up...and probably not one that has been honored by so much nonsense.' Somehow the beauty and lightening speed of this tiny, brilliant flower of the air so impressed him, as later to create within him the strongest urge to investigate its habits, and perpetuate on canvas its fleeting beauty, and exquisite iridescence." (R.C. McIntyre, Martin Johnson Heade, New York, 1948, pp. 10-12)
While Heade was a gifted naturalist, the character of wo Green Breasted Hummingbirds reveals his devotion to the romantic and narrative ideology of the nineteenth century artist. Heade has placed his two subjects harmoniously on a single branch, in the midst of the jungle, set off by a luminous sunset. While the composition makes Heade's work popular to the present day, it "increasingly dismayed ornithologists, who pointed out that birds are not only difficult to see (being almost always in motion, with a wingbeat of up to 200 per second), but that male and female are almost never found together, particularly around the nest. Nevertheless, Heade's scenes communicate a sense of domestic felicity and quiet--a theme he defended in the manuscript introduction to his book, where he also disclaimed that his work had any 'scientific character,' stated his reliance upon 'the works of various trochilidists,' yet made no reference to his own artistic approach to the subject. He was careful both in this essay and later ones to cite his predecessors in defense of his notion regarding the peculiar virtues of these birds. 'Audubon and Wilson,' he wrote, 'could hardly find words to express their admiration for [the male hummingbird] as dutiful and devoted husband, but lately their opinions have been challenged... I have never been lucky enough to find a nest that I could watch, though I have always been inclined to agree with Audubon and Wilson.' Moreover, he would have denied that his hummingbird scenes were imaginary or unrealistic...As in the case of his great thunderstorm pictures, he probably would have defended these paintings as 'exceptional,' but also 'true.'"(T.E. Stebbins, Jr., The Life and Works of Martin Johnson Heade, New Haven, Connecticut, pp. 133-134)
This work will be included in Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr.'s forthcoming catalogue raisonn of the artist's works.
Heade's early fascination with the mystical hummingbird had astounding ramifications for his artistic career. "He had long been an ardent lover of nature, a sportsman, and advocate of bird sanctuaries a keen student of nature's wild life. In early childhood he had made the acquaintance of the hummingbird, of which in later life he writes: 'A few years after my first appearance in this breathing world I was attacked by the all-absorbing hummingbird craze, and it has never left me since; with the natural result that what is known about them I know, and what I don't know about them others do--or think they do. There is probably no member of the feathered tribe...that has been so thoroughly written up...and probably not one that has been honored by so much nonsense.' Somehow the beauty and lightening speed of this tiny, brilliant flower of the air so impressed him, as later to create within him the strongest urge to investigate its habits, and perpetuate on canvas its fleeting beauty, and exquisite iridescence." (R.C. McIntyre, Martin Johnson Heade, New York, 1948, pp. 10-12)
While Heade was a gifted naturalist, the character of wo Green Breasted Hummingbirds reveals his devotion to the romantic and narrative ideology of the nineteenth century artist. Heade has placed his two subjects harmoniously on a single branch, in the midst of the jungle, set off by a luminous sunset. While the composition makes Heade's work popular to the present day, it "increasingly dismayed ornithologists, who pointed out that birds are not only difficult to see (being almost always in motion, with a wingbeat of up to 200 per second), but that male and female are almost never found together, particularly around the nest. Nevertheless, Heade's scenes communicate a sense of domestic felicity and quiet--a theme he defended in the manuscript introduction to his book, where he also disclaimed that his work had any 'scientific character,' stated his reliance upon 'the works of various trochilidists,' yet made no reference to his own artistic approach to the subject. He was careful both in this essay and later ones to cite his predecessors in defense of his notion regarding the peculiar virtues of these birds. 'Audubon and Wilson,' he wrote, 'could hardly find words to express their admiration for [the male hummingbird] as dutiful and devoted husband, but lately their opinions have been challenged... I have never been lucky enough to find a nest that I could watch, though I have always been inclined to agree with Audubon and Wilson.' Moreover, he would have denied that his hummingbird scenes were imaginary or unrealistic...As in the case of his great thunderstorm pictures, he probably would have defended these paintings as 'exceptional,' but also 'true.'"(T.E. Stebbins, Jr., The Life and Works of Martin Johnson Heade, New Haven, Connecticut, pp. 133-134)
This work will be included in Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr.'s forthcoming catalogue raisonn of the artist's works.