John Elwood Bundy (1853 - 1933)

Born 1 May 1853 in Guilford, North Carolina, United States

Ancestors

Died 17 Jan 1933 at age 79 in Cincinnati, Hamilton, Ohio, United States

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Biography

John was a Friend (Quaker)

John Bundy is Notable.

The noted American painter John Elwood Bundy was born 1 May 1853 in Guilford County, North Carolina into the Quaker family of John and Mary Bundy,^[1][2][3] a family with deep roots in North Carolina. In 1858 when John was about the age of five (and the youngest member of his family) they along with many other Quaker families in the era, left North Carolina and this family settled on a farm near Monrovia, Morgan County, Indiana.^[3] As a young man attending a Quaker school, he was encouraged in art by celebrated Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley who had become aware of his drawings. Riley gave Bundy a number of art books to study the work of well-known painters.

He married Mary Marlatt in 1875 and with her had two sons, Arthur, who became a photographer in Richmond, Indiana, and Walter, who became a civil engineer in Chicago. Mary passed away in 1906.

He studied briefly with Barton Hays in Indianapolis but went east spending nearly a decade in New York City as a portraitist and was also a photographer, though his later focus was on landscape painting. He worked in both oil and watercolor, with much of his subject matter coming from Wayne County, Indiana, especially the Whitewater Valley. During 1886-87, the family lived in Martinsville, Indiana, where John painted portraits and taught art classes.

In 1888 he moved to Richmond and for eight years headed the Art Department at Earlham College, where he taught drawing and painting. He was one of the founders of the Art Association of Richmond and was part of the Richmond School of Indiana painters and Richmond's premier artist. He was in attendance at the first organizational meeting of the Art Association and served on the board of directors for many years. During that time a book of his etchings, "Fond Recollections", was published. This book reflected his love of the scenery around Earlham. The Art Association purchased his five-foot long painting, Blue Spring in 1900. This was only the second work the art association had acquired, the first being Near Metamora, In the Whitewater Valley, 1899 by T.C. Steele, reflecting the importance of Bundy as an Indiana artist.

After the death of his wife in 1906, he built a studio behind the family home in Monrovia and lived with his sister. From 1910 to 1911 he traveled in California and then spent several summers in Northern Michigan on Little Traverse Bay, where he painted primarily in watercolor. He exhibited widely across the United States and his primary dealer was J.W. Young of Chicago.

In 1929, Bundy, who was getting quite frail, moved to Harlingen, Texas with his son but died in a sanatorium in Cincinnati on January 17, 1933. With no family remaining in Richmond, his funeral was held in the Centerville, Indiana, home of his most active patron, John Nixon. One of those who spoke, in a room filled with Bundy landscapes, was William Forsyth, a preeminent artist of the Hoosier Group. The artist was buried in Earlham Cemetery.

For a sampling of Bundy's work, the reader is referred to a page maintained by Wayne County Artists.

Children

• Arthur - b 4 Aug 1876
• Walter - b 13 Jan 1885

Selected Exhibitions

• 1902 Society of Western Artists
• 1903 and 1907-1914 Chicago Art Institute
• 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition
• 1904 The Pennsylvania Academy
• 1910 Biennial Exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
• 1925 The Hoosier Salon

Research Notes

"The Richmond School" of painters achieved national recognition and is distinct and separate from the "The Hoosier Group." The Richmond School included John Elwood Bundy, Charles Conner, Frank J. Girardin, Micajah Thomas Nordyke, Alden Mote, Florence Chandlee, Elwood Morris, Mrs. Joe A. Hodgin, Mrs. Elmer Lebo, William A. Eyden, Sr., James Edgar Forkner, Anna M. Newman, M. Ella Lacey, Fred Pearce, Charles Clawson, Florence J. Fox, A. W. Gregg, and William A. Holly

Sources

1. ↑ North Carolina Yearly Meeting Minutes. Hege Friends Historical Library, Guilford College, Greensboro, North Carolina. Deep River Monthly Meeting Women´s Minutes, 1843-1892
2. ↑ Hinshaw, Wm Wade, et al, Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy; I:778, Deep River Monthly Meeting minutes
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} US Census, Year: 1860; Census Place: Monroe, Morgan, Indiana; Roll: M653_284; Page: 635; Family History Library Film: 803284

See Also:

• "American Art Review," August 2002. 'The Art of John Elwood Bundy,' by William H. Gerdts
• John Elwood Bundy at WikiPedia (stub article)
• https://johnelwoodbundy.com/
• Mary Q. Burnet, Art and Artists of Indiana (New York: Century Company, 1921), pp. 281-287
• Indiana Artists Series. J. E. Bundy New Era (South Bend), February 17, 1912
• Ella Bond Johnston, An Indiana Landscape Poet and Historian, Outlook 107 June 27, 1914), pp. 474-479
• Poetic Woodlands: The Art of John Elwood Bundy by Kristin U. Fedders