The Brook at Medfield
painter
Dennis Miller Bunker
(Garden City, New York, 1861 - 1890, Boston)
Date1889
Place MadeMassachusetts, United States, North America
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions62 x 76 cm (24 7/16 x 29 15/16 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberP3s19
Status
Not on viewWeb Commentary
During the summer of 1889, Bunker painted this landscape in Medfield, Massachusetts, a pastoral retreat southwest of Boston. The previous year he and his friend John Singer Sargent had experimented with Impressionism in England, both under the influence of Claude Monet. When Bunker returned to Boston, he continued with the style—working outdoors and using a bright palette applied in short brushstrokes. The fields and streams of Medfield reminded Bunker of the English countryside, and like Monet with his haystacks, he was inspired to document the same landscape over the course of one season. He wrote to Isabella, “How fast too the Summer is slipping by us! Everything goes at such a pace—there is even a hint of autumn stealing into my parti-colored canvases, tho' I try to keep them in their Summer garb….”
Isabella bought the painting in November—one of the only Impressionist paintings in her collection.
Id719055
Last Updated8/9/24
EmbARK ObjectID10815
Source ID82
