Wild Asters
Date1889
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions25 × 30 in. (63.5 × 76.2 cm)
Framed: 38 5/8 × 43 3/4 × 3 3/4 in.
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LinePromised Gift to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas
Signedl.r., in dark brown paint: D M BUNKER / 1889
Label TextBunker died a young man, the year after he painted this fluid, lush view of a verdant Massachusetts meadow. Wild Asters is one of four paintings recording the effects of transient light and the changing of the seasons on the same grassy expanse. The landscape is landlocked and skyless, a tightly cropped view of a serpentine brook that bisects a field of green. The shimmering water is in direct sunlight, painted with a combination of blue, red, and green pigments. The fresh, fast strokes of pinkish-white that form the asters lining the brook further enliven the scene. Bunker’s painting embraces the changeability and emotional intensity of nature through its swirling rhythms, blurred edges, and flood of light.
