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Sunlight and Shadow: The Newbury Marshes - Martin Johnson Heade - Romantic Canvas Wall Art brings gallery-caliber art into everyday spaces. This fine art oil painting is a 100% hand painted oil painting on canvas, created for buyers who want genuine romantic canvas wall art instead of a mass-produced poster or paper print.
c.1871-1875
Oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art - Washington DC, United States.
The first pictures of marshlands by Martin Johnson Heade featured the environs of Newbury and Newburyport, Massachusetts, near the mouth of the Merrimack River. Perhaps attracted by John Greenleaf Whittier's poetry that celebrated the local landscape or more likely drawn there by his acquaintance with Bishop Thomas March Clark of Newburyport, Heade discovered the area sometime around 1859. By the end of his career he had executed more than 100 marsh subjects, a body of work that accounts for almost one-fifth of his entire known oeuvre as a painter. Over the course of this series Heade captured the essential character of the wetlands environment. He depicted the tides, meteorological phenomena, and other natural forces that shaped the appearance of the swamp and showed how the land was used for hunting, fishing, and the harvesting of naturally occurring salt hay. No other artist of the era explored and analyzed the unique qualities of the marshes in such a sustained and detailed way.
Sunlight and Shadow is a particularly masterful example of how Heade balanced many countervailing forces in his wetland compositions. The serpentine line of the tidal creek receding into the open plain on the right is offset by the visual weight of the haystack and apple tree on the left. The rhythm of the creek's movement is complemented by the undulating wave pattern that the treetops and clouds trace across the sky. The pink clouds are mirrored in the shallow pool of water at the lower center of the painting, and the form of the tree leaning left is echoed in the sweep of the high thin clouds placed in the upper right corner. Finally, the painting's primary motif, sunlight and shadow, seen, for instance, in its intricate cloud shadows and the subtle movement from light to dark across the body of the haystack, informs and unites all its visual elements.
Sunlight and Shadow: The Newbury Marshes joins other masterworks by Heade at the National Gallery, includingCattleya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds and Giant Magnolias on a Blue Velvet Cloth. The Gallery's permanent collection includes a remarkable example of each of the three distinctive subjects that defined Heade's singular career—hummingbirds, flowers, and marshes.
Our artists reproduce this fine art composition in oil on canvas by hand, preserving the tonal range that makes fine art oil painting so sought after for a home office.
Trained artists work in stages — underpainting, mid-tones, highlights, and detail — using traditional oils on canvas. Because nothing is printed, every hand painted oil painting has its own subtle texture and depth.
For office wall decor that does not feel generic, a painted fine art canvas is hard to beat. It is a popular fine art oil painting pick for new homeowners and a durable alternative to seasonal poster art.
Order Sunlight and Shadow: The Newbury Marshes as a hand painted oil painting on canvas and add lasting romantic character to your home office. Custom sizes, a digital proof before dispatch, and secure worldwide shipping are included.
| Size | Price |
|---|---|
| 20 X 40 in | $116.48 |
| 24 X 48 in | $172.48 |
| 30 X 60 in | $243.48 |
| 36 X 72 in | $313.48 |
The sizes shown are the reproduction canvas sizes we paint to order. The dimensions given in a work's description refer to the original artwork and will differ from the sizes offered here. Not sure? Read the size guide or e-mail us.
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Every canvas is painted by hand in oils on artist-grade stretched canvas, with an extra blank border left for framing. How to care for your painting.
Measurements are on the size guide, or e-mail [email protected] and we reply within one business day.
