Dennis Miller Bunker (Garden City, New York, 1861 - 1890, Boston)
Moonrise, 1884
Pastel on paper , 36 x 55 cm (14 3/16 x 21 5/8 in.)
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The chalk-like pastels used to make this piece give a misty look to the whole scene, enhanced by visible diagonal strokes from bottom left to upper right over the entire paper. The scene is divided into three horizontal sections: at the bottom, a white pathway or road stretches across the whole paper. A person is walking the path from right to left in the lower right. The walker is wearing light blue pants, dark shoes, a short dark coat, and a yellow hat. In the middle ground, a grassy knoll occupies most of the scene. A bushy tree stands out on the top right, and several small bushes are scattered along the ridge. At the top of the paper the blue sky is darkening while a bright yellow moon rises over the ridge.
Macknight Room
Commentary
Dennis Miller Bunker made this pastel landscape in Paris when he was an art student in 1884. Pastel was a relatively modern medium and its highly saturated pigments were favored by members of the Impressionist circle, like Edgar Degas. Bunker captured a moody twilight scene of a lone figure walking along a path with the moon just visible over the hillside. Bunker embraced Impressionism, before dying tragically young at the age of 29. Grief stricken by her friend’s death, Isabella purchased this pastel from his memorial exhibition in 1891 and displayed it over her desk in the Macknight Room.