Neither Land Nor Water: Martin Johnson Heade, Frederic Edwin Church and American Landscape Painting in the Nineteenth Century

Martin Johnson Heade and Frederic Edwin Church had a close personal relationship, shared a studio for more than a decade, and maintained a correspondence that lasted nearly forty years. Church was better known and certainly more successful commercially than Heade, but despite their close proximity and Heade's personal and professional admiration for Church, Heade should not be seen as an imitator of Church. Heade's paintings are a departure from Church's work in both form and content. In particular, a study of Heade's many marsh paintings reveals that, while Heade used some of Church's compositional elements, Heade's preparation, working method, purpose, and message to his audience are quite different from those of Church. Heade's marsh paintings make their own unique contribution to the history of American art.