Orchid Blossoms (1873): Art, History and Details

Orchid Blossoms (1873) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Martin Johnson Heade (American, 1819–1904).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

At the time he created this work, Martin Johnson Heade had made three trips to Central and South America. As an outgrowth of these experiences, he made a large number of paintings of birds and flowers, especially orchids, in a tropical setting.

Object facts

• Title: Orchid Blossoms
• Date: 1873
• Creator attribution: Martin Johnson Heade (American, 1819–1904)
• Culture: America
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 47.6 x 40 x 7 cm (18 3/4 x 15 3/4 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 38.1 x 30.6 cm (15 x 12 1/16 in.)
• Collection: American - Painting
• Department: American Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1915.461

A detail from the museum

Ten years after painting Orchid Blossoms, artist Martin Johnson Heade married at the age of 64.

Collection credit

Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Northern Illinois University. Near-Looking, A Close-Focus Look at a Basic Thread of American Art. [Catalogue of the Exhibition] Oct. 27-Nov. 22, 1974. DeKalb, Ill: Northern Illinois University, 1974.
• Johnson-Humrickhouse Memorial Museum, Coshocton, Ohio. American Paintings, 1825-1915, from the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Inaugural Exhibition at the New Home of the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum, July 7 - Nov. 1, 1979. 1979.
• Maciejunes, Nannette V., and Norma J. Roberts. A Nation's Legacy: 150 Years of American Art from Ohio Collections. [Columbus, Ohio]: Columbus Museum of Art, 1992.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.