Martin Johnson Heade 1819 - 1904

Richard Mills, Exeter, New Hampshire
Kennedy Galleries, New York
John Wilmerding, Hanover, New Hampshire
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York
Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Branford, Connecticut
Vose Galleries, Boston, Massachusetts, 1969
Private Collection, 1970 (acquired from the above)
By descent to the present owner

New York, Public Education Association, The American Vision: Paintings, 1825-75, 1968, no. 105, illustrated
Boston, Massachusetts, Museum of Fine Arts; Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Paintings of Martin Johnson Heade, September 1999-August 2000, no. 17, pp. 31, 39, 191, illustrated

Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., The Life and Works of Martin Johnson Heade, New Haven, Connecticut, 1975, no. 253, p. 101, illustrated
Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., The Life and Work of Martin Johnson Heade: A Critical Analysis and Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven, Connecticut, 2000, no. 253, p. 264, illustrated

The scenic salt marshes along the Northeastern coast were among Martin Johnson Heade’s favorite and most highly acclaimed subjects, accounting for a significant portion of his oeuvre. Working in the luminist tradition, Heade painted the landscape at dawn and at dusk, in bright sunlight and under ominous storm clouds, recording the ever changing variations of light and atmosphere prevalent along the New England shore. In Two Fishermen in the Marsh, at Sunset Heade places distinct emphasis on the flatness of the marsh, drawing the viewer into the receding space with a serpentine ribbon of water that rhythmically wends its way into the distance. The subliminal calmness of Heade’s landscapes is reinforced by his use of light in conjunction with a strict geometric foundation that underlies his ordering of the elements of water, land and sky. Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. writes, “…Heade demanded of himself originality, and, though the marsh was familiar and ubiquitous, it was a new subject for the American painter. Equally important, the marsh was simply a place Heade loved: on the one hand it represented untouched nature—and ideal place for hunting and fishing—on the other it was a natural farmland, where hay was harvested and stacked. If Heade was an intermediary figure between the Hudson River School and the next generation, then too the marsh might be seen as an intermediate landscape that lies somewhere between wilderness and the pastoral” (Martin Johnson Heade, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, 1999, p. 29).