Martin Johnson Heade achieved his most popular success with paintings of the flat salt marsh regions along the East Coast. His humble landscape subjects set him apart from those contemporaries who pursued more dramatic vistas of the American wilderness. Heade’s work featured the evocative effects of light and atmosphere, qualities emphasized in horizontal compositions of striking simplicity. The artist painted this mature work in Saint Augustine, Florida, where he settled permanently in 1884. Twilight captures the transitional mood of what Heade called “our worn-out country” after the Civil War.