Martin Johnson Heade was best known in his lifetime, as today, for his marsh paintings, a subject he first undertook in the 1860s. Although Heade painted marshes in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and Florida, he captured the overall character of marsh life, rather than recalling specific locales. After the Rain in the Salt Marshes incorporates hallmarks of Heade's marsh compositions: a strongly horizontal view of the landscape, cut by a winding ribbon of water and dotted with haystacks receding into the distance. Heade also often added strong directional light effects to create dynamic patterns of shadows that animate the otherwise calm scene.
