Martin Johnson is an American naturalist painter known for his still lifes, landscapes and portraits. He was not famous during his life in the 19th century. It was not until the 1940s that his work attracted the attention of art critics and art historians, and in the 20th century he came to be regarded as a great American artist.
Childhood of the artist
In 1818, Martin Johnson Head, later a famous artist, naturalist and poet, was born in a small rural community of Lamberville, located on the banks of the picturesque Delaware River, Pennsylvania, USA. Martin was the firstborn and eldest son in a large family of farmer and sawmill owner Joseph Heade (Martin took the pseudonym "Head" after moving to New York). From early childhood, he amazed those around him with his passion for drawing. The young man received his first painting lessons from the local artist Edward Hicks (1780 - 1849) and Edward's brother, Thomas Hicks, who were not endowed with great talent as painters.
Career
Having received the basics of fine arts, Martin independently mastered the technique of writing. Head's successes were so great that in 1840, he went to continue his training in painting, first to England, then to Europe, to France and to Italy, more precisely to Rome, where he studied art for two years.
Two years later, he returned to Pennsylvania, where he exhibited his work for the first time at the Academy of Fine Arts.
In 1843, he returned to the United States, settled in New York and continued to work in the portrait genre, sometimes sketching still lifes. There, Head becomes close to the landscape and romanticist Frederick Church, who helps Martin find his own style, insisting that a friend try his hand at landscape painting. This period of his work is closely associated with the famous Hudson River School by art historians.
In 1847 he moved to Philadelphia. Gradually, the artist develops a kind of craving for travel. In 1848, he made a second trip to Rome and visited Paris, which formed his habit of changing places.
After returning from Rome, he lived in St. Louis for a year, but between 1852 and 1857, he moved at least three times to Chicago, Trenton, and Providence. He also visited Missouri, Illinois, South America, British Columbia, California, and finally Florida, where Head settled.
In 1859, Martin Head returns to New York. A turning point in Head's development as a distinctive painter was his residence in New York, he then rented part of an art workshop on Tenth Street. Having become close to landscape painters, especially with his friend artist Frederic Hooch (landscape painter and novelist), who managed to inspire Head to develop his own style in painting and sparked in him an interest in landscape with its subtle atmospheric effects. Even the distinctive New York, the city with which Head's life was closely connected, could not dampen his desire for landscape painting, it took root too deeply.
From 1861 to mid-1863, Head spent in Boston, creating on his canvases a pristine coastal landscape, in a manner unique to him. Head was the only American painter of the nineteenth century to make a tangible contribution to the development of painting, in the genres of landscape, nautical themes and still life. Virtually all of his still lifes were floral. Starting with simple paintings - flowers in vases, painted by him in the early 1860s, later reached full perfection when his canvases with luxurious roses, magnolias, and other flowers appeared, located on a plane beautifully draped with velvet.
In 1863, Head traveled to Brazil, a paradise for biologists and plein air. The nature of this country became the theme for Martin Head's paintings - his Brazilian series includes more than forty paintings.
In the second half of 1863, Head continued to travel to Brazil, staying there for almost a year. The purpose of the trip was to create illustrations of all types of South American hummingbirds, which he later wanted to publish in the UK. But, failed. Who knows why or why Head was unable to release illustrations of his drawings of these adorable birds. One can only guess that drawings of hummingbirds probably already existed, drawn by numerous collectors of flora and fauna, or maybe there were not enough funds to publish the illustrations. But in spite of everything, Head stubbornly continued to paint hummingbirds in a tropical environment, which became the main theme in his painting. Love for nature contributed to the artist's travels to Nicaragua, Panama, Jamaica and Colombia.
A thirst for travel drew him to change, and in 1866 Head again visited South America, and four years later, he made his third trip to Brazil.
In the 1880s, Head returned to still life painting. His most famous still life - huge milk magnolias with glossy leaves on ultramarine velvet - brought him financial success and recognition.
Creation
- 1890 - Huge magnolia on blue velvet
- 1885-95 - Magnolia on red velvet
- 1878 - Blooming apple tree
- 1875-83 - Orchids and hummingbirds
- 1875-1885 - Hummingbird and passion flower
- 1875 - Hummingbird and blossoming apple tree
- 1874-1875 - Brookside
- 1872-78 - Newburyport Meadows
- 1871 - Cattleya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds
- 1870 - View of Fern Tree Walk, Jamaica
- 1870 - A branch of a blossoming apple tree in a shell
- 1868 - Storm at Narragansett Bay
- 1866-67 - Approaching Storm, Beach near Newport
- 1864-65 - Blue butterfly
- 1864 - Brazilian forest
- 1863 - The boat aground
- 1862 - Lake George
- 1860 - Sailing under the moon
- 1859 - Approaching a thunderstorm
Personal life
In 1883, Head married and settled permanently in the town of St. Augustine, Florida. After a lifetime of turmoil, he painted pictures that were difficult for perception at that time, displaying his personal attitude on his canvases, which is why Head had very modest success, both with critics and with the public. But there he also found the first and only admirer of his work, a major industrialist and magnate G. Morrison Flagler, who began to regularly acquire the artist's works in the period from 1880 to 1890. In New York, he was virtually forgotten. Perhaps due to the lack of widespread acceptance of his work, Head has become less likely to approach the easel. In the last years of his life, the artist painted flowers, in particular magnolias. The artist died on September 4, 1904.
Artist recognition
Today his work is held in many great museums and private collections. The inclusion of Large Magnolias on Blue Velvet, one of five Head paintings featured in The New World: Masterpieces of American Painting, 1760-1910, 1983-1984 in Boston, Washington, and Paris, was a testament to the high recognition of the painter Martin Head, not only in his homeland, but throughout the world. In 1969, 74 paintings by the 19th century American artist Martin Johnson Head were exhibited at an art exhibition in the United States. This was the first personal, complete exhibition of his work. Selected from public and private collections, the paintings were divided into groups representing the painter's key themes - beautiful seascapes, saline coastal backwaters, still lifes, magnolias and hummingbirds.
