Isabella Stewart Gardner
painter
Dennis Miller Bunker
(Garden City, New York, 1861 - 1890, Boston)
subject
Isabella Stewart Gardner
(New York, 1840 - 1924, Boston)
Date1889
Place MadeUnited States, North America
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions59.7 x 48.9 cm (23 1/2 x 19 1/4 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberP33e6
eMuseum ID725207
EmbARK ObjectID13904
TMS Source ID2749
Last Updated8/9/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryDennis 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.
BibliographyNotesMorris 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.
Elizabeth Reluga, "American Impressionism and A Piano Trio," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 29 December 2020, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/american-impressionism-and-piano-trio
Nathaniel Silver (ed.), Titian's Rape of Europa (Boston, 2021), pp. 15, fig. 7.
Nathaniel Silver and Diana Seave Greenwald. Isabella Stewart Gardner: A Life (Boston, 2022), pp. 76-77, fig. 39.
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.
Elizabeth Reluga, "American Impressionism and A Piano Trio," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 29 December 2020, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/american-impressionism-and-piano-trio
Nathaniel Silver (ed.), Titian's Rape of Europa (Boston, 2021), pp. 15, fig. 7.
Nathaniel Silver and Diana Seave Greenwald. Isabella Stewart Gardner: A Life (Boston, 2022), pp. 76-77, fig. 39.
MarksNotesSigned and dated (upper right): Denis Bunker / 1889
Inscribed (on a label, affixed to the frame): Mrs. Gardner 152 Beacon St.
Inscribed (on a label, affixed to the frame): Mrs. Gardner 152 Beacon St.
ProvenanceNotesCommissioned by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the American painter Dennis Miller Bunker (1861-1890), Boston on 6 March 1888 for $1,500.
