Dennis Miller Bunker: American Impressionist

One of the first American impressionist painters, Dennis Miller Bunker is not generally remembered today, yet this impressive, beautiful album, which accompanies a traveling exhibition, should bring his pioneering work to a wider audience. Born in New York in 1861, Bunker spent two years in France (1882-84), painting picturesque scenes of Brittany, then moved to Boston. There he broke with the Emersonian tradition of deriving spiritual elevation from nature, and instead used quick brush strokes and bright colors in pictures that combine meticulous clarity and impressionist poetry. Bunker, who died at the age of 29, probably of cerebrospinal meningitis, numbered among his friends John Singer Sargent, William Dean Howells and collector Isabella Stewart Gardner. Hirshler, a curator at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, and art historian Curry weave a biographical profile around the 46 color plates. (Apr.)