Martin Johnson is an American naturalist artist known for his still lifes, landscapes, and portraits. He was not famous during his lifetime in the 19th century. His work attracted the attention of art critics and art historians only in the 1940s, and in the 20th century he was considered a great American artist.
Artist’s childhood
In 1818, in the small rural community of Lumberville, located on the banks of the picturesque Delaware River, Pennsylvania, USA, Martin Johnson Head was born, a future famous artist, naturalist and poet. Martin was the first-born and eldest son in a large family of the farmer and owner of the sawmill Joseph Hyde (Martin took the pseudonym “Head” after moving to New York). From early childhood, he surprised others 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 for painters.
Career
Having received the basics of fine art, Martin independently mastered the writing technique. Head's success was so great that in 1840, he went to continue his studies in painting art, first to England, then to Europe, France and Italy, more precisely, to Rome, where he studied art for two years.
Two years later, he returns to Pennsylvania, where he first demonstrates his work 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 still sketching still lifes. There, Head gets close to the landscape painter 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, art historians are closely associated with the famous Hudson River School.
In 1847 he moved to Philadelphia. Gradually, the artist formed a peculiar 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 a year in St. Louis, but between 1852 and 1857, he moved at least three times to Chicago, Trenton, and Providence. He also traveled to Missouri, Illinois, South America, British Columbia, California, and finally to Florida, where Head had settled.
In 1859, Martin Head returned to New York. The turning point in the formation of Head as an original painter was his residence in New York, he then rented part of the art workshop on Tenth Street. Having come close to landscape painters, especially his acquaintance, Frederick Hooch (landscape painter and novelist), who managed to inspire Head to begin developing his own style in painting and sparked his interest in landscape with its subtle atmospheric effects. Even the original New York, the city with which the life of Head was closely connected, could not stifle his desire for landscape painting, it took root too deeply.
From 1861 until 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 artist of the nineteenth century, making a tangible contribution to the development of painting, in the genres of landscape, marine 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, which later reached full perfection when his canvases appeared with luxurious roses, magnolias, and other flowers located on a plane beautifully draped with velvet.
In 1863, Head traveled to Brazil - a paradise for biologists and plein airs. The themes for Martin Head's paintings were the nature of this country - his Brazilian series has more than forty paintings.
In the second half of 1863, Head continued to travel around Brazil, having been there for almost a year. The purpose of the trip was to create illustrations of all species of South American hummingbird birds, which he later wanted to publish in the UK. But, failed. Who knows why or why Head could not release illustrations of his drawings of these lovely birds. One can only guess that the hummingbird drawings probably already existed, drawn by numerous collectors of flora and fauna, or maybe there weren’t enough funds to publish illustrations. But, no matter what, Head stubbornly continued to draw hummingbirds in a tropical environment, which became the main theme in his painting. Love of nature contributed to the artist’s journey to Nicaragua, Panama, Jamaica and Colombia.
The thirst for travel pulled 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 painting still lifes. 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 passionflower
- 1875 - Hummingbird and Blooming Apple Tree
- 1874-1875 - Brookside
- 1872-78 - Meadows of Newburyport
- 1871 - Cattleya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds
- 1870 - View of Fern Three Walk, Jamaica
- 1870 - Branch of a blossoming apple tree in the sink
- 1868 - Storm by the Bay of Narragansett
- 1866-67 - An approaching storm, a beach near Newport
- 1864-65 - Blue Butterfly
- 1864 - Brazilian Forest
- 1863 - A boat aground
- 1862 - Lake George
- 1860 - Departure under the moon
- 1859 - Approaching a thunderstorm
Personal life
In 1883, Head first married and settled permanently in the town of St. Augustine, Florida. After a lifetime of turmoil, he paints pictures that were difficult to understand at that time, displaying his personal attitude on his canvases, which is why Head was a very modest success, both among critics and the public. But there he found the first and only admirer of his work, a major industrialist and tycoon G. Morrison Flagler, who began to regularly acquire the artist's works from the 1880s to the 1890s. In New York, he was virtually forgotten. Maybe due to the lack of widespread recognition of his work, Head became 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.
