PORTRAIT OF A BROTHER AND SISTER
OIL ON CANVAS
25” X 31 ½”
SIGNED AND DATED ON VERSO
“H. Bundy Pinxt. Aug. 11, 1853” ~ Horace Bundy (1814 – 1883)
Commentary: Unlike many of his contemporaries, Horace Bundy made it a practice to sign and date the great majority of his portraits. His inscriptions, which appear on the verso, frequently include the name of the sitter and location, allowing scholars to document and categorize his works in unusual detail.[1] Horace Bundy appears in the Lowell Massachusetts 1836 directory ad as a “carriage maker” and may have learned to paint with oils by decorating carriages and other items such as fire buckets, banners and signs that frequently featured painted ornamentation. Bundy was active as a portrait artist from 1837 until about 1860 and traveled widely in his native Vermont as well and New Hampshire and Massachusetts. He was a member of the Millerite faction of the Baptist Church but after the prophesy of the world’s end failed to materialize in the 1843-1844 period Bundy seems to have drifted away from the group. In the 1860s Bundy was himself serving as a preacher in an Adventist congregation in Lakeport, NH. He later moved to Concord where his death was recorded in an 1883 obituary.
Bundy made up for his lack of academic training by a steady improvement over his career in his skills in capturing character and an evolving sense of composition. This portrait, which seems to depict a brother and sister, was done in 1853 and is representative of his matured technique. Bundy responded to advent of photography and the growing competition for “likenesses” by emphasizing his skills with color both in his advertising and in the portraits he produced. This painting is an excellent example of his skills in creating “life-like coloring” and the use of bold, vivid masses of strong tones that contrasted distinctly with the tonal grays of daguerreotypes and subsequently photographs.
Condition: The painting is in good condition, reflecting Bundy’s well honed skills in preparing his canvases and paints. Several repairs can be seen on the verso but no attempt has been made to line the canvas as the artist’s signature and other information would be lost. The frame is period but not original.
Price: sold
[1] The primary sources of information on Bundy are: Lauren B. Hewes. “Horace Bundy: itinerant portraitist”. Magazine Antiques, October 1994, pages 486-494. And the Encyclopedia of American Folk Art, By Gerard C. Wertkin, Lee Kogan, American Folk Art Museum
