Martin Johnson Heade
Today we start our new special monthly feature, this time with the Cleveland Museum of Art. For the next five Sundays we will present masterpieces from their amazing collection. Enjoy! : )
In 1863 Martin Johnson Heade took the first of three trips to South America with an amateur naturalist, the Reverend C. J. Fletcher, to do studies for a projected (though never published) book on hummingbirds. As an outgrowth of that experience, Heade made many paintings of birds and flowers, especially orchids, in a tropical setting. In this way he combined his main interests of still life and landscape—a union of themes he maintained in his work into the 20th century. The paintings are characterized by meticulous and precise rendering of detail and high-keyed luminescent color.
P.S. There's an artist who mastered painting orchids and it was Georgia O'Keeffe! <3 See these beautiful paintings from Hawaii here!