Perhaps inspired by the writings of Charles Darwin, Martin Johnson Heade painted a Cattleya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds around 1871. The painting places a single glowing orchid against the humid darkness of a tropical forest, with three tiny hummingbirds hovering and feeding around it.
Heade travelled through Brazil and Central America, and the orchids and hummingbirds of those jungles became the subject of many of his best known works.
Painted around 1871.