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Two Brazilian Hummingbirds, one Facing with Crest
Brazilian Hummingbirds III
Two Brazilian Hummingbirds, one Facing with Crest
Martin Johnson Heade (American, 1819–1904)
1864
Medium/Technique
Chromolithograph, touched with oil
Dimensions
Sheet: 29.9 x 25.4 cm (11 3/4 x 10 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Maxim Karolik for the M. and M. Karolik Collection of American Watercolors and Drawings, 1800–1875
Accession Number60.1071
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAmericas, Prints and Drawings
ClassificationsPrints
Catalogue Raisonné
Karolik (1962) cat. 354
DescriptionMale bird right, with crest and wings outspread, alighting on end of branch against background of mountain peak. Female on lower branch left, with enst above. Palm trees in valley. "Gems of Brazil" was the title given to twelve pictures, first exhibited by Heade in Rio de Janeiro in 1864, representing part of the twenty paintings intended to be chromolithographed and published in London, the work dedicated to Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil. Apparently, only a few proofs were made, unsatisfactory to the artist, and the project was abandoned. Robert G. McIntyre in Martin Johnson Heade, N.Y., 1948, lists only six impressions of the chromos, four of which, including this one, are in Museum of Fine Arts.
ProvenanceMaxim Karolik, Newport; Gift to MFA September 21, 1960