(left) Horace Bundy (Hardwick, Vermont 1814–1883 Concord, New Hampshire), Portrait of Mary Almira Bishop Judd (1830-1911) ca. 1854, oil on canvas, 30 in. x 25 1/8 in. (76.2 cm x 63.8 cm), Gift of John and Carol Bell  2017.46

(right) Horace Bundy (Hardwick, Vermont 1814–1883 Concord, New Hampshire), Portrait of William Sheldon Judd (1823-1902) ca. 1854, oil on canvas, 29 3/4 in. x 24 7/8 in. (75.6 cm x 63.2 cm), Gift of John and Carol Bell 2017.45

Signed and dated 1854 by Horace Bundy on the back of the canvas, this pair of portraits portrays Mr. William Sheldon Judd and Mrs. Mary Almira Bishop Judd. Bundy was a self-taught itinerant portrait painter who worked mostly in Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and New York. Licensed as an Adventist preacher, he painted and preached throughout New England. The first works by Bundy in the collections of the Davis Museum, this portrait set was painted a few years after the young couple married, most likely during a visit to family in upstate New York. The portraits are naturalistic yet naive; details such as skin tone and hair are described with great attention to detail and finish, while the clothing lack this refinement. The painted oval border was typical of Bundy’s style in the mid-1850s. The paintings have descended through the family, and have yet to be published or exhibited in public.