John Wharlton Bunney was an English topographical and landscape artist of the nineteenth century.

His father was a merchant captain whom Bunney, as a boy, accompanied on several voyages around the world. Bunney demonstrated a strong talent for drawing and draftsmanship from an early age. The young Bunney became a follower of John Ruskin

John Ruskin

John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...

; he studied under Ruskin at the Working Men's College

Working Men's College

The Working Men's College- WMC, being among the earliest adult education institutions established in the United Kingdom, is Europe's oldest extant centre for adult education and perhaps one of its smallest...

 soon after its founding in 1854, and later worked as a clerk for Smith, Elder & Co.

Smith, Elder & Co.

Smith, Elder & Co. was a firm of British publishers who were most noted for the works they published in the 19th century.The firm was founded by George Smith and Alexander Elder and successfully continued by George Murray Smith .They are notable for producing the first edition of the Dictionary...

, Ruskin's publisher. Bunney was able to give up his clerical job and make his living by his art and art teaching by 1859; Ruskin commissioned him to execute a series of drawings in Italy and Switzerland.

Bunney married Elizabeth Fallon in 1863. The couple settled in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

; they would have four children. Bunney worked for Ruskin's St. George's Company (later the Guild of St George

Guild of St George

The Guild of St George is charitable trust founded by John Ruskin in England in the 1870s as a vehicle to implement his ideas about how society should be re-organised. Its members, who are called Companions, were originally required to give a tithe of their income to the Guild...

) in northern Italy for the remainder of his life. In his career there, Bunney produced a noteworthy pictorial record of Italy in his era. Ruskin said that Bunney's work was "so faithful and careful as almost to enable the spectator to imagine himself on the spot." Bunney was a friend of many of the Pre-Raphaelites, especially William Holman Hunt

William Holman Hunt

William Holman Hunt OM was an English painter, and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Biography:...

.

From 1870 on, Bunney lived and painted in Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

. In 1876 Ruskin commissioned Bunney to paint a picture that included the entire western facade of St. Mark's Basilica; Bunney worked on this project through "six hundred early-morning sessions" spaced over six years. (Ruskin was campaigning to prevent a renovation of the west front of St. Mark's, and the painting was part of this effort.) One day during this period, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, no admirer of Ruskin (Whistler had bankrupted himself in a 1878 libel suit against Ruskin), reportedly sneaked up behind Bunney as Bunney worked, to stick a note to his back. The note read, "I am totally blind." Bunney, absorbed in his work, remained oblivious to Whistler's prank. The painting now hangs in the Ruskin Gallery

Ruskin Gallery

The Ruskin Gallery is a gallery within the Millennium Galleries in Sheffield, England.It houses a collection of minerals, paintings, ornithological prints, drawings, manuscripts and architectural plaster casts assembled by John Ruskin....

 in the Millennium Galleries

Millennium Galleries

The Millennium Galleries is an art gallery in the City of Sheffield, England. Opened in April 2001 as part of Sheffield's Heart of the City project, it is located in the city centre close to the city library, Sheffield Hallam University, and the city's theatre district...

 in Sheffield

Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

.

After Bunney's death in 1882, Ruskin started a memorial fund to benefit his widow and children.

External links

• J W Bunney on Artnet
• Bunney's St. Mark.
• Venice from the Bacino (Oil on canvas - Christie's
  Christie's
  Christie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
  
  )