Dennis Miller Bunker (1861-1890)
A favorite of renowned collector Isabella Stewart Gardner, Bunker was born in Brooklyn, New York, but became closely associated with Boston. After studying first with William Merritt Chase and then with Jean-Léon Gérôme in Paris, Bunker accepted a teaching position at Boston's Cowles School of Art in 1885. Though he lived for only an additional five years, he is credited with introducing Bostonians to European artistic ideas and developments, and is considered one of the founding members of the Boston School of painters.
Bunker's work captures the underlying form of his subjects, whether figural, landscape, or still life, but conveys a sense of mood rather than exact structural details. Bunker's prodigious talent allowed him the opportunity to work alongside luminaries including John Singer Sargent, who once called Bunker the most gifted of the young American painters. After painting with Sargent and absorbing Monet's influence during the summer of 1888, Bunker began to adopt looser brushwork and employ brighter color, suggesting the direction his later work might have taken had he not died at age 29.