Dennis Miller Bunker: Unity of Effect

"Wild Asters" by Dennis Miller Bunker

R.H. Ives Gammell continues the story of Dennis Miller Bunker by analyzing his artistic achievements. In a chapter on "Landscapes" he writes: 

"Dennis Bunker painted his finest landscapes at Medfield during the summers of 1889 and 1890, summers which were to be his last. There he found material peculiarly congenial to his talent in the brook-crossed meadow, a stone's throw from his boarding house. He describes it affectionately as 'a funny charming little place, about as big as a pocket handkerchief with a tiny river, tiny willows and a tiny brook.'

"His way of painting there seems to have been to lay in first the larger masses of color on his canvas. In so doing he established once and for all the general tonality of his picture, pitching it in a key which allowed for sufficient luminosity while avoiding the chalky and insubstantial look which so often mars the work of plein air painters. Bunker's unerring judgment in this matter of key is one of the main factors in the success of his landscapes. Once the larger masses were properly established and the canvas covered, he would proceed to work into these areas with broad touches of color. As the pictures progressed these touches naturally became smaller until, in the more finished canvases, the workmanship bore some resemblance to the pointilliste technique of the French.

People untrained in the art of painting often believe that finish is attained by simply adding detail to detail and consequently they dismiss it as a mere by-product of industry and patience. Unfortunately this view does not correspond with the truth. For an essential characteristic of all fine painting is unity of effect, and this unity is destroyed by any detail stated in a false relation to the other component parts of the picture. This is particularly true of the type of painting we are here discussing, the purpose of which is to recreate on canvas the impression made on the painter's eye by the landscape before him. To achieve this end, each detail must be set down with just the degree of definition and coloration which it holds for the eye when the focus of vision is adjusted so as to include the entire scene depicted. Piecemeal notation of individual detail immediately destroys the requisite unity of impression and turns the canvas into a compilation of separately observed visual facts. This invariably results in a hard, dry look, destroying all breadth of effect and offensive even to those who are quite unaware of its technical cause... The ability to carry a picture to a high degree of finish without losing its unity of impression is the mark of a master and requires artistry of the highest order."

(Excerpts from "Dennis Miller Bunker" by R.H. Ives Gammell.)