Lacroix-St. Ouen, Oise

In Dennis Miller Bunker’s placid Lacroix-St. Ouen, Oise, tall trees and grasses partly screen a distant river. Above the water, birds wheel in a silvery overcast sky. Its brightness is reflected in a small pool in the open foreground, where rich greens contrast with the tawny autumn tints of the vegetation above. Adding to the seasonal theme is the unobtrusive figure of a hunter, his gun over his shoulder, who is all but lost in the dark foliage framing the scene on the left. With its subdued light, softly brushed forms, and earth tones, Bunker’s painting evokes a somewhat elegiac mood—tempered, however, by his close attention to candidly observed effects of light and atmosphere.

Bunker arrived in Paris in 1882 to study in its renowned art academies, where the pedagogy focused on figural art. Like many fellow American art students in the French capital, he made frequent excursions into the countryside to pursue his interest in landscape, following the emerging practice of painting outdoors. Accompanied by his friend Kenneth R. Cranford (1857–?), Bunker spent the summer of 1883 in the small town of La Croix Saint-Ouen, some forty-five miles northeast of Paris. The town was not an established artist’s haunt, but it offered inexpensive accommodation and easy access to the lushly irrigated forest of Compiègne, long famed for its hunting. Notwithstanding its title, Lacroix-St. Ouen, Oise shows nothing of the town, offering instead a glimpse of the natural beauty of the nearby Oise River.

Along with many of his American contemporaries, Bunker favored the gray light and resulting muted colors of northern France. The bright but overcast sky pictured in Lacroix-St. Ouen, Oise also appears in his Brittany Town Morning, Larmor (TF 1991.1), painted the following summer, but the glaring illumination in that image departs from the subdued light seen here. Both paintings appeared in Bunker’s solo exhibition in Boston in 1885. Lacroix-St. Ouen, Oise, with its ambitious dimensions, the artist’s inscription of the title (in his peculiar rendering of the place-name) at lower left, and the anecdotal figure of the hunter, seems particularly intended to appeal to viewers. The work’s softly brushed but evident strokes of paint, restrained tones, and serene, intimate mood reveal Bunker’s admiration for the romantic landscape paintings of Camille Corot (1796–1875), and possibly also the influence of the introspective nature images of George Inness. Both artists’ paintings were avidly collected by Americans in the 1880s, as Bunker was certainly aware.

Dennis Miller Bunker Exhibition, Noyes & Blakeslee Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, 1885.

Selections from the Permanent Collection: Americans at Home and Abroad, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 6–29, 1987.

American Painters in France, 1830–1930, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, June 14–September 3, 1989. [exh. cat.]

Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915 (Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, June 1–November 1, 1992; April 1–October 31, 1993. [exh. cat.]

Giverny: une impression américaine (Giverny, An American Impression), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–November 1, 1998.

Ville et campagne: les artistes américains, 1870–1920 (The City and the Country: American Perspectives, 1870–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venues: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–July 15, 1999; Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, December 10, 1999–May 7, 2000 (in modified form). [exh. cat.]

Les impressionistes américains, de 1880 à 1915, Fondation de l'Hermitage, Lausanne, Switzerland (organizer). Venue: Fondation de l'Hermitage, Lausanne, Switzerland, June 7–October 20, 2002.

Le Passage à Paris: les artistes américains en France, 1860–1930 (Passing through Paris: American Artists in France, 1860–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny,  April 1–October 31, 2005. [exh. brochure]

Le Passage à Paris: les artistes américains en France, 1860–1930 (Passing through Paris: American Artists in France, 1860–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny,  April 1–October 29, 2006. [exh. brochure]

The Studio of Nature, 1860-1910: The Terra Collection in Context (L’atelier de la Nature, 1860-1910. Invitation à la Terra Collection). Terra Foundation for American Art with the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny (organizers). Venue: Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, France, September 12, 2020–January 3, 2021. [exh. cat. in French]

Gerdts, William H. et al. Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text pp. 212, 214; pl. 50, p. 213 (color).

Gerdts, William H. et al. Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text pp. 212, 214; pl. 50, p. 213 (color).

Hirshler, Erica E. Dennis Miller Bunker: American Impressionist. (exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts). Boston, Massachusetts: Museum of Fine Arts, 1994. Text pp. 28–29, 170; fig. 5, p. 28 (black & white).

Cartwright, Derrick R. The City and the Country: American Perspectives, 1870–1920. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1999. Text p. 23 (checklist); ill. p. 40 (color).

Cartwright, Derrick R. Ville et campagne: les artistes américains, 1870–1920. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1999. Text p. 23 (checklist); ill. p. 40 (color).

Griffith, Bronwyn A. E. Passing Through Paris: Americans in France, 1860–1930. (exh. brochure, Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2005. Text n.p.; fig. 6, n.p. (color).

Griffith, Bronwyn A. E. Le Passage à Paris: les artistes américains en France, 1860–1930. (exh. brochure, Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2005. Text n.p.; fig. 6, n.p. (color).

Bourguignon, Katherine and Valerie Reis. The Studio of Nature, 1860-1910: The Terra Collection in Context. (exh. cat, Terra Foundation for American Art with the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny). Paris, France: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2020.  Text p. 108; ill. p. 112 (detail); Pl. 43, p. 113 (color).