In the context of this artwork, explain the Hummingbirds in art of the Background.
Heade was the first artist to paint live hummingbirds in their natural environment as opposed to dead hummingbirds in a studio setting. According to Stebbins, "during the early 1870s Heade moved from conventional still-life compositions, in which he would typically paint a vase of flowers resting on a table indoors, to a highly unusual format–hardly a 'still-life' at all–where he would depict orchids and hummingbirds as they existed in the tropical wilderness.": 16  Before these paintings, Heade mostly painted marshes and coastlines. The landscape element of his paintings of hummingbirds is often overlooked. Even though the landscape is not the focal point, it still takes up a majority of the painting. Heade was known to be fond of hummingbirds, even feeding his own hummingbirds sugar water.While Heade pioneered the portrayal of hummingbirds in art during his trip to South America, writers such as Mabel Loomis Todd and Emily Dickinson depicted them in their work as well. Hummingbirds are classically symbolic of American identity and exemplary of European fasciation with the exotic wildlife in the Americas. A mutual love for the exoticism of hummingbirds also fostered a relationship between Heade and Pedro II of Brazil.Heade has painted over 100 depictions of hummingbirds in their tropical abodes. Heade's depictions of these exotic birds are small, "measuring only about twenty inches on their longest edge," giving the work a feeling of intimacy. The paintings lack negative space, instead depicting the surrounding landscape in minute detail.
Mabel Loomis Todd Emily Dickinson Pedro II of Brazil