#cattleya orchid and three hummingbirds

MWW Artwork of the Day (4/7/16)
Martin Johnson Heade (American, 1819-1904)
Cattleya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds (1871)
Oil on wood, 34.8 x 45.6 cm.
National Gallery, Washington DC (Gift of The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation)

Heade was the only major American artist of the nineteenth century to make important contributions in landscape, marine, and still-life painting. Here he offers viewers an intimate glimpse into the exotic recesses of nature’s secret garden. Lichen covers dead branches; moss drips from trees; and, a blue-gray mist veils the distant jungle. An opulent pink orchid with light-green stems and pods dominates the left foreground. To the right, perched near a nest on a branch, are a Sappho Comet, green with a yellow throat and brilliant red tail feathers, and two green-and-pink Brazilian Amethysts.

Perhaps inspired by the writings of Charles Darwin, the artist studied these subjects in the wild during several expeditions to South America. The precisely rendered flora and fauna seem alive in their natural habitat, not mere specimens for scientific analysis. Defying strict categorization as either still life or landscape, Heade’s work reflects the artist’s unerring attention to detail and his delight in the infinitesimal joys of nature.

More of Heade’s exotic flora and fauna paintings appear in the MWW exhibit/gallery:
* Americana III: Westward Ho! Natural Grandeur, Human Genocide