Martin Johnson Heade (American, 1819–1904)
York Harbor, Coast of Maine
INV-1527
Martin Johnson Heade (American, 1819–1904)1877
York Harbor, Coast of Maine
Martin Johnson Heade (American, 1819–1904) →paintingamerican arts
Date
1877
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
38.7 × 76.8 cm (15 1/4 × 30 1/4 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Purchased with funds provided by Mrs. Herbert A. Vance; Americana, Lacy Armour and Roger McCormick endowments; through prior gifts of Dr. and Mrs. R. Gordon Brown, Emily Crane Chadbourne, George F. Harding Collection, Brooks McCormick, and James S. Pennington
This painting represents Martin Johnson Heade’s mature style from the 1870s and contains many of the compositional elements that have led modern scholars to celebrate the artist as a proponent of Luminism. A 20th-century term, Luminism has consistently been linked to the 19th-century philosophical doctrine of transcendentalism. Stylistically, it is characterized by a horizontal format; tight, invisible brushwork; and pervasive light emanating from an unseen source. Together these qualities embody the intellectual spirit of the American writer and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), who found transcendental unity in the contemplation of nature’s stillness.
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