Dennis Miller Bunker

Dennis Miller Bunker was one of the first Americans to fully understand Impressionism, and in his short career he painted two very different kinds of picture: grave, beautifully controlled portraits of young women, and sunlit, freely brushed landscapes of meadows, streams and gardens.

Born in New York City in 1861, he studied at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design, then in Paris under Jean-Léon Gérôme from 1882. In 1885 he began teaching in Boston, where he became a friend of Isabella Stewart Gardner. Meeting John Singer Sargent in 1887 changed his work: they painted together in England in 1888, and his landscapes at Medfield, Massachusetts, in 1889 show how completely he had taken up the Impressionist approach. His portrait Jessica dates from 1890, the year he died at 29. His work is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Metropolitan Museum and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Meadow Lands and In the Greenhouse show his light, open touch.