The Mirror

The Mirror is Dennis Miller Bunker’s half-length portrayal of a young woman who implicitly invites our admiration as she looks down into a small hand mirror. Seated on a gilt and upholstered bench, she is dressed in a fashionable gown of diaphanous white. Her elegant profile and auburn hair, gathered into a braided bun, are framed against a nondescript dark blue background. Although the sitter seems wholly absorbed in contemplation of her beauty, her downward gaze, half-closed eyes, lifted chin, and erect posture all suggest an act of self-conscious display. She seems to look to her reflection not with anxiety but in confident expectation of affirmation. Indeed, one reviewer interpreted a faint smile of triumph on the woman’s face.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the theme of the beautiful, solitary contemplative woman was widely treated by American painters and sculptors. Often she is shown gazing at an equally lovely object or, as in this image, at her own exquisite reflection, while seemingly unaware of our scrutiny. These works follow many of the compositional and stylistic conventions of formal portraiture but offer little insight into the subject’s individual psychology. Like such images as Madelaine (TF 1999.45) by Bunker’s friend Thomas Wilmer Dewing and Spring Flowers (Peonies) (TF 1999.32) by his teacher William Merritt Chase, The Mirror emphasizes youth and beauty as the subject of female performance in a society in which they might constitute a woman’s most valuable assets. It suggests the tradition of vanitas, an allegorical comment on the brevity of life and the emptiness of worldly ambition, of which one symbol was a female viewing her reflection in a mirror.

Bunker’s posing of the figure in this painting reveals the influence of Dewing’s refined seated female figures, often shown in profile. His relatively loose application of paint, especially in the woman’s dress, recalls the vibrant brushwork of both Chase and Bunker’s friend John Singer Sargent, whose notorious Portrait of Madame X (1883–84; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) may have suggested the dramatic, elegant profiling of the face against a contrasting ground. Like many of his American artistic contemporaries in the 1880s and 1890s, Bunker viewed landscape painting as the vehicle for experimenting with the rapid brushwork and brilliant color of the radical mode known as impressionism, while using a more conventional subdued range of color and a solid modeling of three-dimensional forms in his portrayal of the figure indoors.

The culminating figural work of Bunker’s brief career, The Mirror was painted in Boston at a time when the young artist was struggling to secure portrait commissions. He posed the popular New York model Julia “Dudie” Baird for the painting, which he no doubt intended as a demonstration of his skills in fashionable portraiture. At the Art Institute of Chicago’s third annual exhibition of American paintings in 1890, it won the James W. Ellsworth Prize of three hundred dollars. Although the canvas found no buyer in the artist’s lifetime, Chicago newspapers reviewers were enthusiastic, and one deemed Bunker’s asking price of one thousand dollars ridiculously low. Bunker’s professional associates considered The Mirror his finest work. It was also one of his last, for the artist died suddenly only months after the painting’s triumphant reception in Chicago.

Third Annual Exhibition of American Oil Paintings, The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, June 9–July 13, 1890 (First Prize; The James W. Ellsworth Prize).

Dennis Miller Bunker: Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts (organizer). Venue: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, October 5–13, 1943, no. 1. [exh. cat.]

Woman, Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, February 21–April 22, 1984.

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A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 21–June 21, 1987. [exh. cat.]

An American Revelation: The Daniel J. Terra Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, February 28–October 1, 1988.

Collection Cameo, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 1991.

Dennis Miller Bunker: American Impressionist, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts (organizer). Venues: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, January 13, 1995–June 4, 1995; Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, July 1, 1995–September 24, 1995; Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, October 14–December 31, 1995. [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, April 2–October 31, 1996. [exh. cat.]

Figures and Forms: Selections from the Terra Foundation for the Arts, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 9–July 9, 2000.

New Faces, New Places: Recent Additions to the Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, October 14–December 31, 2000.

(Re)Presenting Women, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, October 16, 2001–January 13, 2002.

D'une colonie à une collection: le Musée d'Art Américain Giverny fête ses dix ans (From a Colony to a Collection: Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of the Musée d'Art Américain Giverny), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, March 30–June 16, 2002.

A Place on the Avenue: Terra Museum of American Art Celebrates 15 Years in Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 16, 2002–February 16, 2003 (on exhibit extended run: November 2, 2002–March 2, 2003).

American Classics, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, December 13, 2003–February 8, 2004.

Visages de l'Amérique: de George Washington à Marilyn Monroe (Faces of America: From George Washington to Marilyn Monroe), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2004. [exh. cat.]

Twarze Ameryki: Portrety z kolekcji Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940 (Faces of America: Portraits from the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France and Miedzynarodowe Centrum Kultury (International Cultural Center), Cracow, Poland (organizers). Venue: International Cultural Center, Cracow, Poland, February 15–May 7, 2006. [exh. cat.]

Portrait of a Lady : peintures et photographies américaines en France, 1870–1915 (Portrait of a Lady: American Paintings and Photographs in France, 1870–1915), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, Giverny, France and  Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France (organizers). Venues: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, Giverny, France, April 1–July 14, 2008;  Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France, September 25, 2008–January 5, 2009. [exh. cat.]

John Singer Sargent and Chicago's Gilded Age, The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois (organizer); Venue: The Art Institute of Chicago, June 28–September 30, 2018 [exh. cat.]

Terra Collection-in-Residence, Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany, May 26, 2023–July 31, 2025.

   

"The 'American Artists.'" Chicago Tribune (June 9, 1890). Text.

"No Chance for Art." Rochester Herald (July 19, 1890). Text quoted from the Chicago Herald.

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Sherman, Mary. "The Conservation of a Proper Boston." Chicago Sun-Times (Sunday, March 8, 1987): 24. Ill. p. 24.

The Mirror, Dennis Miller Bunker. Collection Cameo sheet, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 1991. Ill. (black & white).

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Kennedy, Elizabeth and Sophie Lévy. Faces of America: Portraits of the Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, 1770–1940. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2004. Text pp. 16, 30 (checklist); ill. p. 47 (color).

Kennedy, Elizabeth and Sophie Lévy. Visages de l'Amérique: le portrait dans la collection de la Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1770–1940. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2004. Text pp. 16, 30 (checklist); ill. p. 47 (color).

Lévy, Sophie, et al. Twarze Ameryki: Portrety z kolekcji Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940/Faces of America: Portraits from the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940. (exh. cat. International Cultural Center). Cracow, Poland: International Cultural Center, 2006. Text pp. 22–23, 74; ill. front cover (color), p. 75 (color).

Aronson, Julie. Bessie Potter Vonnoh: Sculptor of Women (exh. cat. Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio). Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2008. Text p. 126, Ill. p. 127 (black & white).

Vanessa Lecomte, editor. Portrait of a Lady : peinture et photographies américains (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny and Musée des beaux-arts de Bordeaux). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2008. Text p. 93; ill. p. 41 (color).

Bourguignon, Katherine M. American Impressionism: A New Vision 1880-1900. (exh. cat., Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, National Galleries of Scotland, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza). Giverny, France: Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, 2014. (English, French and Spanish versions). Text p. 40; ill. fig. 13, p. 40 (color).

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