Dennis Miller Bunker (Garden City, New York, 1861 - 1890, Boston)
Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1889
Oil on canvas , 59.7 x 48.9 cm (23 1/2 x 19 1/4 in.)
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Object details
Accession number
P33e6
Creators
- Dennis Miller Bunker (Garden City, New York, 1861 - 1890, Boston) - primary
- Isabella Stewart Gardner (New York, 1840 - 1924, Boston) - subject
Full title
Isabella Stewart Gardner
Creation Date
1889
Provenance
Commissioned by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the American painter Dennis Miller Bunker (1861-1890), Boston on 6 March 1888 for $1,500.
Marks
Signed and dated (upper right): Denis Bunker / 1889
Inscribed (on a label, affixed to the frame): Mrs. Gardner 152 Beacon St.
Dimensions
59.7 x 48.9 cm (23 1/2 x 19 1/4 in.)
Display Media
Oil on canvas
Dimension Notes
Frame: 88.9 x 79.4 cm (35 x 31 1/4 in.)
Web Commentary
Dennis Miller Bunker painted Isabella in a gown she wore to the Artists' Festival, a costume ball benefiting the Boston Art Students' Association in April of 1889. Isabella sat on the organizing committee for the evening and the Boston Globe reported that all of the patronesses of the event wore Venetian costumes from the time of Paolo Veronese. Bunker also attended the event dressed as a troubadour carrying a lute. A year later Bunker recalled Isabella in her regal attire, writing to her "I often think of you in Venetian state... do you wear your red and gold dress I wonder—or do your hair à la Tintoretto?" Isabella collected 6 other paintings and drawings by Bunker before he died tragically early at the age of 29.
Permanent Gallery Location
Vatichino
Bibliography
Morris Carter. Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court (Boston, 1925; Reprint, Boston, 1972), pp. 103-04.R.H. Ives Gammell. Dennis Miller Bunker (New York, 1953), p. 75.Kathleen Weil-Garris Brandt. "Mrs. Gardner's Renaissance." Imaging the Self in Renaissance Italy. Fenway Court, vol. 23 (1990-1991), pp. 25-26, 30, n53, fig. 13.Erica Hirshler. Denis Miller Bunker: American Impressionist. Exh. cat. (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Chicago: Terra Museum of American Art and Denver: Denver Art Museum, 1995), pp. 64-65, 175, fig. 35.Hilliard Goldfarb and Erica Hirshler. Dennis Miller Bunker and His Circle. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1995), pp. 8, 26-27, 61, no. 8.Nathaniel Silver (ed.), Titian's Rape of Europa (Boston, 2021), pp. 15, fig. 7.Rights and reproductions
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Vatichino
Commentary
Dennis Miller Bunker painted Isabella in a gown she wore to the Artists' Festival, a costume ball benefiting the Boston Art Students' Association in April of 1889. Isabella sat on the organizing committee for the evening and the Boston Globe reported that all of the patronesses of the event wore Venetian costumes from the time of Paolo Veronese. Bunker also attended the event dressed as a troubadour carrying a lute. A year later Bunker recalled Isabella in her regal attire, writing to her "I often think of you in Venetian state... do you wear your red and gold dress I wonder—or do your hair à la Tintoretto?" Isabella collected 6 other paintings and drawings by Bunker before he died tragically early at the age of 29.