Martin Johnson Heade (American, 1819-1904) Still Life with Cherokee Roses

Description:

Martin Johnson Heade (American, 1819-1904)

Still Life with Cherokee Roses
Signed "M.J.Heade" l.r., partial label from James S. Earl & Sons on the reverse.
Oil on canvas, 10 x 15 in. (25.4 x 38.1 cm),in the original frame.
Condition: Surface grime, bloom to lower edge, drying craquelure.

Provenance: A Massachusetts library.

N.B. Martin Johnson Heade was born in 1819 in rural Pennsylvania, and began painting at the age of eighteen. He spent the next forty years traveling around the United States as well as going abroad to Europe to paint. In 1858, he moved to New York City and settled into the Tenth Street Studio Building, where he painted alongside many of the leading painters of the Hudson River School. His landscapes from this period clearly show this influence, although he was less interested in conventional scenes of natural beauty and often chose to paint eastern salt marshes instead. He also began painting still lifes when he moved to New York; these mainly consisted of arrangements of flowers in vases. Over time, he began to paint magnolias and roses in a different manner, reclining on a table instead of in vases and by themselves instead of amongst other types of flowers.1

1 Stebbins, Theodore E. Jr., Martin Johnson Heade. (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1999).

A copy of a letter discussing this work from Dr. Theodore E. Stebbins Jr. will accompany the lot. He dates the painting, which will be included in his next book, between 1883 and 1890. We are grateful to Dr. Stebbins for his kind assistance.
Estimate $75,000-125,000

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