1819 -1904 · East Coast, Brazil and Florida

Silent swamps, hanging storms, hummingbirds and magnolias make Martin Johnson Heade one of the most unique painters of American nature.

Martin Johnson Heade was born in 1819 in Lumberville, Pennsylvania, and died in Saint Augustine, Florida, in 1904. The son of a farmer, he received his first local training and began as a portrait painter. For about fifteen years, he traveled to the United States and Europe in search of commissions. Around 1859, almost at the age of forty, he discovered the subject that marked his maturity: the salt marshes and coastal plains of New England. Around 1859, almost at the age of forty, he discovered the subject that marked his maturity: the salt marshes and coastal plains of New England. The low horizon, the flat light, the haystacks and the heavy clouds allowed him to paint less a specific place than an atmospheric expectation. The low horizon, the flat light, the haystacks and the heavy clouds allowed him to paint less a specific place than an atmospheric expectation. The low horizon, the flat light, the haystacks and the heavy clouds allowed him to paint less a specific place than an atmospheric expectation. The low horizon, the flat light, the haystacks and the heavy clouds allowed him to paint less a specific place than an atmospheric expectation. The low horizon, the flat light, the haystacks and the heavy clouds allowed him to paint less a specific place more intense sky. Fascinated since childhood by hummingbirds, Heade left for Brazil in 1863, the first of several trips to South and Central America. He observed birds, orchids, lianas and tropical mists with the eye of the naturalist, then brought them together in invented compositions such as Orchid cattleya and three hummingbirds. Landscape and still life become inseparable. Installed in Florida from 1883, he still painted marshes and developed sumptuous bouquets of magnolias placed on velvet. Moderately recognized during his lifetime and difficult to classify among established schools, Heade is today admired for the diversity of his work and for his ability to unite precision, memory, sensuality and meteorological presentiment. The "Martin Johnson Heade" selection notably compares Approach to a Storm and Dawn. His reading favors space.

Heade paints the moment when nothing has yet burst: the air charges, the water falls silent and the light transforms the landscape into a presentiment.