Author Description

Dennis Miller Bunker (1861-1890) was one of the most talented painters of late nineteenth-century America. He was among the first Americans to use the bright colors and broken brushstrokes of the new Impressionist style; his beautiful landscapes and portraits are sought after by the most distinguished collectors of American art. Dennis Miller Bunker: American Impressionist is the first comprehensive study of this important American artist. Trained in the academies of his native New York, Bunker continued his education in Paris, where he flourished in the sophisticated atmosphere of the world's art capital. In 1885, he accepted a teaching position in Boston. He joined the city's vibrant artistic community and developed close friendships with the writer William Dean Howells, the composer Charles Martin Loeffler, and the legendary collector Isabella Stewart Gardner, who became his champion. In Boston, Bunker also met John Singer Sargent, America's most renowned painter. The summer they spent working together in England proved to be a turning point in Bunker's career. Bunker moved to New York in 1889. His heart remained in Boston, however, for he had fallen in love with Eleanor Hardy, the daughter of a prominent businessman. The couple married in October 1890. Barely three months later, Bunker died at age twenty-nine of a sudden illness. His beautifully crafted paintings were his only legacy.