Born in Pennsylvania, Martin Johnson Heade began his artistic training around 1837 with the folk artist Edward Hicks. He sent his first paintings to the National Academy of Design in 1843 and continued to exhibit there throughout his life. In 1859 he was drawn to the Tenth Street Studio Building where Heade made a lifelong friend of Frederic E. Church. Heade exhibited with his Hudson River School colleagues but his subject differed considerably from theirs; he painted marshlands, coastal scenes, and still life rather than mountainous panoramas. Although little recognized in his lifetime, his paintings are now considered among the most original of the period.