Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904), American painter, was a central figure in American luminism, a movement primarily concerned with the painting of light.

Martin Johnson Heade was born on Aug. 11, 1819, in Lumberville, Pa. He received his early training in painting from the primitive artist Edward Hicks. About 1838 Heade went to Rome to study; during the 2 years there he painted several portraits, which were exhibited later in New York City and Philadelphia. Again in Rome in 1848, he painted his only extant genre piece, the Roman Newsboys. A year later Heade traveled to St. Louis and Chicago; by 1854 he had moved east to Trenton, N.J. Later he was at work in Providence and along the Rhode Island coast, where he painted his first landscapes in a somewhat hard and flat style.

A new phase of development came in 1859, when Heade took a studio in New York City. There he formed...