1861 -1890 · American realism and New England impressionism

Sober portraits, vibrant flowers, grasses in the sun and Medfield landscapes make Dennis Miller Bunker a dazzling talent in American painting.

Born in New York in 1861, Dennis Miller Bunker studied at the Art Students League then at the National Academy of Design before leaving for Paris in 1882. At the School of Fine Arts, he worked under the direction of Jean-Léon Gérôme and discovered the rigor of academic drawing while painting outdoors. Back in the United States, he taught in Boston and became one of the most promising portrait painters of his generation. His friendship with John Singer Sargent played a decisive role: during the summer of 1888 in England then in Medfield in 1889, Bunker experienced a freer touch, juxtaposed colors and light inspired by French impressionism. His friendship with John Singer Sargent played a decisive role: during the summer of 1888 in England then in Medfield in 1889, Bunker experienced a freer touch, juxtaposed colors and light inspired by French impressionism. His landscapes of streams, meadows and grasses hautes are among the most personal interpretations of the American outdoors. At the same time, he continued constructed portraits and floral still lifes. His career was brutally interrupted by his death in Boston in 1890, at only twenty-nine years old. The "Dennis Miller Bunker" selection notably compares Chrysanthemums. His reading favors details.

Bunker unites discipline and light: the academic construction remains, but the touch makes the air, grass and petals vibrate.