Lot 66022: DENNIS MILLER BUNKER (American, 1861-1890)

DENNIS MILLER BUNKER (American, 1861-1890) Portrait of a Woman, circa 1890 Oil on canvas 22 x 18 inches (55.9 x 45.7 cm) Incised across bottom of canvas: Friday 9 am PROVENANCE: The artist; Mrs. Isabella Stewart Gardner, Boston, Massachusetts 1890; The Detroit Institute of Arts, as gift from Mrs. Gardner, 1907-93; Sotheby's, New York, May 27, 1993, lot 23; Warren Adelson, New York; Babcock Galleries, New York; Private collection, New York. EXHIBITED: St. Botolph Club, Boston, "Dennis Miller Bunker, Memorial Exhibition", 1891, no. 27 (as The Dark Haired Model). LITERATURE: E. Hirschler, Dennis Miller Bunker: American Impressionist, Boston, 1994, p. 179. Bostonian Isabella Stewart Gardner, the preeminent Gilded Age art collector, befriended and championed numerous contemporary artists, such as John Singer Sargent, Henry James, Bernard Berenson, and Dennis Miller Bunker. Born in New York, Bunker moved to Boston in 1885 and, quickly swept under Gardner's wing, painted various portraits of her family, including her brother-in-law and his children. It was through Gardner that Bunker met John Singer Sargent, who would become his great friend and mentor. In 1888, after Sargent left Boston for New York, Bunker inherited his clients, Boston's wealthiest and most prominent families. Portrait of a Woman exemplifies Bunker's facility in capturing human beauty and character with the simplest of compositions. By limiting the color of the model's dress and the background to black tones, he focuses attention on her illuminated, elegantly turned face. This portrait was featured in a memorial exhibition of Bunker's work, organized shortly after his death by fellow artist Charles Platt and other friends. Today major museum collections, in Boston and beyond, possess paintings by Bunker, validating art historian Ted Stebbins' praise: "Bunker is now regarded as one of the major painters at work during the penultimate decade of the nineteenth century in America."