Advanced Search 
Brazilian Hummingbirds IV
Brazilian Hummingbirds IV (Heliactin Cornuta)
Brazilian Hummingbirds IV
Martin Johnson Heade (American, 1819–1904)
1864
Medium/Technique
Chromolithograph on paper
Dimensions
Sheet: 30.4 x 25.8 cm (11 15/16 x 10 3/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Maxim Karolik for the M. and M. Karolik Collection of American Watercolors and Drawings, 1800–1875
Accession Number60.1068
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAmericas, Prints and Drawings
ClassificationsPrints
Catalogue Raisonné
Karolik (1962) cat. 354
DescriptionBirds on forked branch with hanging moss, the male above, with horns, leaning toward his mate. "Gems of Brazil" was the title given to twelve pictures, first exhibited by Heade in Rio de Janeiro in 1864, representing part of the twenty paintings intended to be chromolithographed and published in London, the work dedicated to Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil. Apparently, only a few proofs were made, unsatisfactory to the artist, and the project was abandoned. Robert G. McIntyre in Martin Johnson Heade, N.Y., 1948, lists only six impressions of the chromos, four of which, including this one, are in Museum of Fine Arts.
ProvenanceMaxim Karolik, Newport, Rhode Island; 1960, gift of Maxim Karolik to the MFA. (Accession Date: September 21, 1960)