 | Artist Martin Johnson Heade captured his love of hummingbirds in these paintings, now on loan at the Yale Art Gallery. |
Sixteen of the 20 paintings of hummingbirds that American artist Martin Johnson Heade intended as illustrations for a lavish book called "The Gems of Brazil" are now at the Yale University Art Gallery, on loan from the Manoogian Collection.
Heade (1819-1904) painted the tiny hummingbirds -- frequently referred to as "gems" because of their iridescent feathers -- in compositions that combine elements of the Brazilian landscape with ornithological illustration.
A self-described "monomaniac" on the subject of hummingbirds, Heade raised and tamed them for much of his life. He went to Brazil in 1863 determined to create a book rivaling Audubon's "Birds of America." He exhibited the paintings in Rio de Janeiro, where he was knighted by Emperor Dom Pedro II for his artistic achievement. Then he took the paintings to London to work on the chromolithographs and text.
Due both to lack of money and the artist's dissatisfaction with the quality of the reproductions, "The Gems of Brazil" was never published. In 1865 Heade sold the paintings to an English railroad magnate and sometime before World War II, they were purchased at a country auction in England by the art historian Lord Kenneth Clark. They remained in his family until 1981, when they entered the collection of Richard Manoogian, Yale Class of 1960, who has loaned them to the Yale Art Gallery through the end of June.
The Yale University Art Gallery, located at 1111 Chapel St., is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (until 8 p.m. on Thursdays), and Sunday, 1-6 p.m. Admission is free for individuals; groups should call (203) 432-8459 for information about fees and to make a reservation. There is an entrance for people using wheelchairs at 201 York St., with an unmetered parking space nearby. For information on access, call (203) 432-0606. For general information, call (203) 432-0600 or visit the gallery's website at www.yale.edu/artgallery.
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