Dennis Miller Bunker
Born and raised in New York City, Dennis Miller Bunker studied there until he set sail for Paris at the age of 20. Once in Paris he found a mentor in the French painter and sculptor Jean-Léon Gérôme, with whom he studied until 1884. Upon his return to the United States, Bunker was introduced to the circle of artists who surrounded Isabella Stewart Gardner, the Boston socialite and art collector, and he worked as the principal instructor of drawing and painting at the Cowles School of Art.
What does the word “bohemian” mean to you?
By the 1830s, the term “bohemian,” from the French word bohème, was widely used to describe young artistic and literary figures who rejected middle-class traditions and comforts, engaged in unconventional behavior, and wore very simple, artistic clothing, all in the pursuit of lives dedicated to the higher calling of art. Bunker’s subject—a solitary artist playing a Spanish-style guitar in a humble studio filled with art and books—epitomized romantic conceptions of such a lifestyle.
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd
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