El murmullo del caudal del arroyo; el calor del sol radiante; el aroma de los ásteres que se mecen con el viento... La pintura de Dennis Miller Bunker, que muestra un pantano exuberante, parece viva y tangible.

Bunker pasó el verano de 1888 en Berkshire, Inglaterra, pintando al aire libre con su colega John Singer Sargent. Allí, Bunker aprendió y comenzó a explorar las pinceladas rápidas y sueltas y las paletas de colores vivos de los impresionistas. Bunker regresó a casa y comenzó a pintar su entorno en Estados Unidos, como esta pradera de Massachusetts, al estilo impresionista.

Bunker 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.