Provenance
John H. Lidgerwood [d. 1956], Morristown, New Jersey;[1] (his estate sale, O. Rundle Gilbert, Morristown, New Jersey, 1956); (Victor Spark and Graham Galleries, New York); purchased 27 January 1965 by NGA.
[1] An undated note in NGA curatorial files from William P. Campbell states: "The Graham Galleries said NGA 1941 [former accession number for 1965.2.1] came `from a private home in New Jersey.'" When Heade's small oil entitled _Harbor in Brazil_ was consigned to Sotheby's, New York, for auction, its owner informed the auction house that it had come from a house called "Speedwell" in Morristown and that the National Gallery's painting had been in the same collection (information provided by Dara Mitchell, American Paintings department, Sotheby's, in a telephone conversation; memorandum of 10 June 1992, in NGA curatorial files). See also _American Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture_, Sotheby's, New York, 27 May 1992, no. 6. "Speedwell" was founded by Alfred Vail (1807-1859), who coinvented the telegraph with Samuel F. B. Morse (1791-1872); John H. Lidgerwood was Vail's grandnephew.
Accession Number
1965.2.1
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 45.5 x 91.1 cm (17 15/16 x 35 7/8 in.) | framed: 70.2 x 115.9 x 12.1 cm (27 5/8 x 45 5/8 x 4 3/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of the Avalon Foundation
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Oil Painting Canvas American
Background & Context
Background Story
Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904) was one of the most original American landscape painters of the 19th century, known for his atmospheric paintings of salt marshes, tropical scenes, and hummingbirds. Rio de Janeiro Bay from 1864 is a product of Heade's extended trip to Brazil, where he painted hummingbirds and tropical landscapes under the sponsorship of Emperor Dom Pedro II. The painting shows Rio's dramatic combination of mountains, water, and tropical vegetation from the panoramic viewpoint that Heade favored, with the Sugarloaf Mountain and the bay rendered in the muted, atmospheric light that distinguishes his work from the more chromatic approach of Church and Bierstadt.
Cultural Impact
Heade's Brazilian paintings were among the first American landscape paintings of South American scenery, and they differ significantly from Church's more famous tropical works. Where Church painted the tropics as spectacle—dramatic, colorful, and overwhelming—Heade painted them as atmosphere—muted, contemplative, and specific. The Rio de Janeiro Bay painting demonstrates this atmospheric approach: the bay is not a theatrical backdrop but a specific place with specific light conditions that Heade observed and recorded with precision.
Why It Matters
Rio de Janeiro Bay is Heade's tropics at their most Heade: not Church's tropical spectacle but a specific place with specific atmosphere. The muted light, the panoramic composition, and the precise observation of natural phenomena make this a tropical landscape that prefers atmosphere to drama.
