Local Color: Martin Johnson Heade Paintings

In conjunction with the exhibition “The Genius of Martin Johnson Heade,” organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Georgia Museum of Art presents this small exhibition of five more paintings by Heade. On loan from the private collection of Mrs. Deen Day Sanders, a noted art collector, gardener, philanthropist and Georgian, "Local Color" includes the paintings “Apple Blossoms,” “The Meadow,” “Still Life with Glass of Roses” and “A Red Rose” as well as one of Heade's paintings of the Cherokee Rose (Rosa laevigata), which is the state flower of Georgia.

Nearly forgotten for the first part of the 20th century, Heade’s paintings were rediscovered around World War II and Heade is now recognized as one of the most important American painters of the 19th century. His works are in the collections of many major museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which has the largest public collection of Heade’s paintings. Heade devoted equal time to landscape, marine and still-life subjects, but is best known for his studies of tropical birds and flowers. He began painting still lifes of flowers native to the southeastern United States when he moved to Florida, in 1884. Heade’s paintings of magnolias (two of which are included in the MFA Boston’s exhibition) date from the same era.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website