Orchids and Hummingbird, 1875-83
Martin Johnson Heade, American, 1819-1904
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Gift of Maxim Karolik for the M. and M. Karolik Collection of American Paintings, 1815-1865, 1947
Accession number: 47.1164 Heade's almost sixty known paintings of orchids and hummingbirds represented an entirely new approach to the subject. Although ornithological illustrators had combined birds with flowers and sometimes used landscape backgrounds, Heade integrated the hummingbirds and orchids into lifelike tropical settings. Unlike earlier artists, he painted both the birds and the flowers accurately and to scale. At the same time, they play off each other in rich orchestrations of hues, creating art influenced by science. Here, the deep magenta of the two "Cattleya dowiana" blossoms is repeated in the shimmering neck of the amethyst Woodstar bird, unifying flora and fauna. Poster Size: 24"x36"
Image Size: 20.9"x27.6" Posters are shipped separately in a tube.
Martin Johnson Heade, American, 1819-1904
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Gift of Maxim Karolik for the M. and M. Karolik Collection of American Paintings, 1815-1865, 1947
Accession number: 47.1164 Heade's almost sixty known paintings of orchids and hummingbirds represented an entirely new approach to the subject. Although ornithological illustrators had combined birds with flowers and sometimes used landscape backgrounds, Heade integrated the hummingbirds and orchids into lifelike tropical settings. Unlike earlier artists, he painted both the birds and the flowers accurately and to scale. At the same time, they play off each other in rich orchestrations of hues, creating art influenced by science. Here, the deep magenta of the two "Cattleya dowiana" blossoms is repeated in the shimmering neck of the amethyst Woodstar bird, unifying flora and fauna. Poster Size: 24"x36"
Image Size: 20.9"x27.6" Posters are shipped separately in a tube.
