Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional Search Ir al contenido principal

Navegación superior (EN)

About Us Support Become Friend Shop Tickets
Español
Visit Collection Exhibitions Activities Education Search
  • Visit
  • Collection
  • Exhibitions
  • Activities
  • Education

Thyssen - Navegación superior (EN)

About Us Support Become Friend Shop Tickets
Español
©
Carmen Thyssen Collection
Martin Johnson Heade

Sunrise in Nicaragua

1869
Oil on canvas.
38.7 x 73 cm
Carmen Thyssen Collection
Inv. no. (
CTB.1997.6
)
ROOM B
Level 0
Carmen Thyssen Collection and Temporary exhibition rooms
A B C D E F G H I J Hall Temporary exhibition rooms Access to Permanent Collection Entrance Access to Carmen Thyssen Collection Paseo del Prado Garden
A 17th and 18th Centuries. Old Masters B 19th Century. North American Landscape C 19th Century. French Naturalist Landscape D 19th Century. Impressionism E 19th Century. Monet and North American Impressionism F 19th Century. Gauguin and Postimpressionism G 19th and 20th Centuries. Neo Impressionism and its Wake H 20th Century. Early Avant-gardes I 20th Century. Between the Wars Painting. Cubism, Abstraction and Surrealism J 20th Century. North American Painting and Others • HALL

Henry Tuckerman in his Book of the Artists published in 1867 wrote that the love of travel was strong within Heade and that "he meditates another trip to South America." The historian was referring to Heade's journey to Brazil in 1863-1864 to study the hummingbirds of that country, and his proposed sojourn to Nicaragua in 1866. His "pictures of tropical scenery have attracted much attention", Tuckerman noted, one of which, recording faithfully the vegetation and atmosphere of South American, received "high encomium on the part of the returned Amazon explorers-Agassiz included".

Heade's decision to journey to Nicaragua was probably inspired by Ephraim George Squier's Nicaragua; Its People, Scenery, Monuments and the Proposed Interoceanic Canal, first published in 1852, which despite its prosaic title, often described the country's paradisiac beauty with effusive rapture: "The scenery became, if possibly, more beautiful than before. I never wearied in gazing upon the dense masses of foliage that literally embowered the river, and which, in the slanting light, produced those magical effects of shadow on water, which the painter delights to represent". In a letter written to John Russell Bartlett, 29 June 1866, after arriving in Greytown, Nicaragua, Heade expressed his anticipation in travelling across the country: "They say its (Virgin Bay) a much more pleasant place than this, no mosquitoes. From there its [sic] only 14 miles across to the Pacific". But Heade was disappointed with his experience, "I did not find such a country as I had reason to expect from Squiers account of it", he wrote, "and thought it useless to waste much time there [...] I did not travel much -I went to Virgin Bay and from there to Granada by the lake steamer. I stayed there two weeks and took a mule ride to Massaya [sic]. This is as far as I cared to go".
Because of Heade's disappointment, few paintings and drawings resulted from his trip. One canvas, which was exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1867, Lagoon in Nicaragua (unlocated), must have been similar to the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza painting. It was dismissed by the reviewer of the Round Table who wrote that the painting "has miasma enough about it to induce low fevers in the gallery".

But it caught the attention of Mark Twain who had returned from his own visit to Nicaragua less than a year after Heade's. Twain's description, although of the Heade's earlier painting, closely matches Sunrise in Nicaragua: "There was a dreamy tropical scene-a wooded island in the centre of a glassy lake bordered by an impenetrable jungle of trees all woven together with vines and hung with drooping garlands of flowers-the still lake pictured all over with the reflected beauty of the shores-two lonely birds winging their way to the further side, where glassy lawns, and mossy rocks, and a wilderness of tinted foliage, were sleeping in a purple mist".

Heade's haze-laden painting, with the sun barely breaking through the atmosphere, evokes the mysterious, sultry climate of Central America, "fairy harbours fringed with swinging garlands; and weird grottoes whose twilight depth the eye might not pierce", Twain wrote describing the country. Only the single sailing vessel on the water hints at the presence of man. It is possible, as Theodore E. Stebbins has suggested, that Heade's Nicaraguan paintings, such as Sunrise in Nicaragua, may have influenced the late South American landscapes of his friend, Frederic E. Church. Church's late paintings of the tropics present more murky, generalised views, and "it is difficult to know", Stebbins writes, "whether Church's stylistic change came about because of his own increasing pessimism or whether Heade, in a turnabout, may have begun to influence him".

Kenneth W. Maddox
 

19th Century19th Century. North American Painting. LuminismPaintingOilcanvas
Listen
Download image Print page

Products and publications

Poster Richard Estes. Telephone Booths, 1967

Poster Richard Estes. Telephone Booths, 1967

12.50 €

Poster Edgar Degas. Swaying Dancer, 1877-1879

Poster Edgar Degas. Swaying Dancer, 1877-1879

12.50 €

German Expressionism from the Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection exhibition catalogue (Spanish with English booklet)

German Expressionism from the Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection exhibition catalogue (Spanish with English booklet)

30.00 € 28.51 €

Arte Americano en la Colección Thyssen (Exhibition catalogue. Spanish)

Arte Americano en la Colección Thyssen (Exhibition catalogue. Spanish)

39.00 € 25.00 €

Visit online shop

More from the collection

Martin Johnson Heade
Martin Johnson Heade
Singing Beach, Manchester
1862
Martin Johnson Heade
Martin Johnson Heade
Jersey Marshes
1874
Martin Johnson Heade
Martin Johnson Heade
Orchid and Hummingbird near a Mountain Waterfall
1902
Martin Johnson Heade
Martin Johnson Heade
The Marshes at Rhode Island
1866
  • Private and/or didactic use
  • Commercial use
Private and/or didactic use
Sunrise in Nicaragua. Amanecer en Nicaragua, 1869
Sunrise in Nicaragua
Martin Johnson Heade

©

Carmen Thyssen Collection

Terms of Use

The exploitation rights of the images correspond to the Fundación Coleccion Thyssen-Bornemisza, F.S.P. The Fundación authorizes the downloading of high-resolution images from its website for private use, use for educational and research purposes, and non-commercial uses.

Use for educational and research purposes is understood as the non-commercial or advertising use of images in presentations, conferences, school or university work, in classes at regulated education institutions, as well as in academic publications, with a circulation of less than 1,000 copies, provided that it is non-profit.

Non-commercial use is understood as the use of the images in a context where no profit, monetary or commercial, is generated, directly or indirectly.

Any use other than those indicated above will require the prior written authorization of the Fundación.

Any request for educational and research use or for non-commercial use (including academic publications), should be directed by email to the Museum Photo Library through the email address archivo.fotografico@museothyssen.org. This department manages the worldwide distribution of the images of the works of the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum and the management of their reproduction rights for those uses.

The user agrees to use the image of the website solely and exclusively for the purposes described above and in accordance with the following terms of use:

Terms of use

  • If the image is used for reproduction, the work must be reproduced in its entirety. The image may not be manipulated, deformed, modified or altered in any way. In particular, no superposition (of images or texts) on the reproduction is allowed.
  • The reproduction of a detail or part of the work may only be made with the prior written authorization of the Fundación. In this case, the credit line must include the following mention: “detail”.
  • Any total or partial reproduction of the images authorized by the Fundación must be accompanied by the following mention: Author's name. Title, Date © Coleccion Carmen Thyssen.
  • The user will send to the Museum Photo Library one (1) free copy of the edition, publication or reproduction to the following address: Archivo Fotografico, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Paseo del Prado, 8 28014 Madrid, Spain.
Download image
Commercial use
Sunrise in Nicaragua. Amanecer en Nicaragua, 1869
Sunrise in Nicaragua
Martin Johnson Heade

©

Carmen Thyssen Collection

Terms of Use

The Photo Library of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza offers sale and rental service of photographic material of all the works of the Carmen Thyssen Collection.

To request images or permits for commercial use in academic or research publications, that is, catalogues of other institutions, monographs and other specialised publications, you should contact the Photo Library by email at the e-mail: @email.

To request images or permits for other commercial or advertising uses (general publications, merchandising, exhibitions, audio-visual works, web pages, etc.), you should contact the Museum's Commercial Archive by email at the e-mail: @email.

The Photo Library and the Museum's Commercial Archive manage the worldwide distribution of images of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza works, as well as their reproduction rights. The applicable rates are calculated based on the nature and proposed use of the images, as well as the availability of the requested image.

Requests for scans or new photographs will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Once approved, an additional fee will apply. Re-photographing a work will require a minimum of six weeks to complete.

Download image
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional

Navegación secundaria (EN)

  • #Thyssenmultimedia
  • Press
  • Corporate events
  • Tourism
  • Join our team
  • Newsletter
Instagram
Facebook
X
Youtube
TikTok
iVoox
LinkedIn

The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza would like to thanks for the collaboration of:

Fundación Mutua Madrileña Master Card Comunidad de Madrid
©2025 Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum

Menú al pie (EN)

  • Legal terms and use of images
  • Public tenders
  • Transparency site
  • Accessibility and quality
  • Sustainability & 2030 Agenda
  • Contact
Ministry of Culture España es cultura | Spain is culture. The website promoting Spanish culture Paisaje de la Luz | Paseo del Prado y Buen Retiro. Paisaje de las Artes y las Ciencias
Certificación de Conformidad con el Esquema Nacional de Seguridad. Categoría Media. RD 311/2022