Andrew Fisher Bunner

Old Homestead (Burlington, WV)

c. 1873
Oil on Canvas
16 x 28

Andrew Fisher Bunner (1841-1897)

Andrew F. Bunner was a prolific and accomplished painter of landscapes and marine scenes. A native of New York, he began exhibiting at the National Academy of Design in 1865 and continued to do so annually until his death. While he remained based in New York City for most of his life, he traveled widely in the U.S. and in Europe. He visited the Mid-Atlantic, Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky during the late 1860s and 1870s. From 1871-1876 he studied and worked in Germany, France, Holland and Italy. His travels can be traced through dates inscribed on drawings he created during his travels, many preserved in the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Gallery of Art. A second European sojourn, spent mostly in Venice, was undertaken during the mid-1880s.

In addition to the National Academy of Design, to which he was elected an associate member, Bunner exhibited at many other leading national and international venues including the Paris Salon, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Boston Art Club and the Brooklyn Art Association. His work is represented today in museums including the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and many others.

Bunner is known to have made at least two sketching trips through West Virginia during the late 1860s. Surviving drawings now in the National Gallery of Art include sketches of the Cheat River made in August 1867 and Harpers Ferry the following month. If traveling by road, Bunner’s route between the two locations would have included the Northwestern Turnpike (now Route 50), built during the 1830s. The road would have taken him through Burlington, West Virginia, past the Old Homestead Inn, which was opened in 1831. It is thought that Bunner’s painting “Old Homestead” depicts this establishment.

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