Hartford (Government)

Artist William Gedney Bunce (1840 - 1916)

Artist Louis Orr (American, 1879 - 1966)

Datec. 1910

MediumOil on panel

Dimensions124 1/4 x 64 1/4 in.

ClassificationsOil Painting

Credit LineGift of the Connecticut Historical Society by transfer of a gift from Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Lewtan and Family in memory of Mr. Lewtan's brother, Robert Lewtan

Object number2009.116.1

DescriptionThe subject of this enormous painting, originally commissioned for the Garde Hotel in downtown Hartford, is a recognizable Hartford city scene. Although painted in a style consistent with his scenes of Venice, this is specifically a turn of the century portrait of the industries along the Park/Hog River bank. The industrial scene shows a view that does not exist, as the Park/Hog River was diverted into an underground drainage system in the 1940s to avoid flooding and today only surfaces in select parts of Hartford and Bloomfield.

Bunce admired JMW Turner, the romantic English artist known for his atmospheric landscapes, and thus these two paintings were inspired also by Turner's scenes of Venice. Because Bunce preferred a palette of brown, orange, and deep yellow, his work does not conform to the more brightly hued late nineteenth-century Impressionist painters. He preferred a more subdued, more subtle color spectrum. This stylistic choice links him more directly to the American Barbizon painters, active in the 1860s and 70s. This painting remains among the largest and most ambitious ever painted of the city of Hartford.

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