Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). View source
Approaching Thunder Storm
Martin Johnson Heade · Romanticism & Landscape
- Artist
- Martin Johnson Heade (1819–1904)
- Date
- 1859
- Dimensions
- 71.1 x 111.8 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States
Approaching Thunder Storm shows the moment of eerie stillness before a storm breaks over Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island. The water has turned an inky, almost black blue under a darkening sky, while the land is still lit by a strange, glowing light.
A closer look
A man sits on the grassy shore with his dog, gazing at the water, as small white sailing boats hurry to shelter. Everything is silent and tense: the water is perfectly flat, the clouds hang low and heavy, and the white sails stand out sharply against the darkness. Heade painted with smooth, precise brushwork and an intense awareness of light and atmosphere, a style later called 'Luminism'. Many have read the painting as a premonition of the American Civil War, which broke out two years later.