John Bunyan Bristol was born on March 14,1826 in Hillsdale, NY. Although he studied briefly under portrait painter Henry Ary, the artist was primarily self-taught. He lived in New York City, but he traveled and painted throughout New England almost every summer.
Bristol exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 where he was awarded a medal, the Paris Expo in 1889 where he was awarded a prize, and at the Pan-American Expo in Buffalo in 1901 where he was awarded a medal. Bristol exhibited at the National Academy of Design from 1858 to 1900. He was elected an associate academician in 1860 and a member in 1875. Bristol was a member of the Century Association (from 1873 to 1909), the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art, and the Artists’ Fund Society.
Bristol exhibited two paintings at the Newton Club from December 9th to December 17th, 1896: Knapps Pond ($150), and Lake Champlain From Ferrisburgh, VT ($350). A lot of his paintings seem to be in the Lake Champlain Valley. After a court order was issued in March of 1909 declaring him “insane”, his accumulated stored work of approximately 300 paintings was exhibited and sold at the Salmagundi Club, where a large profit was realized to offset costs related to his estate.
John Bunyan Bristol died on August, 31 1909 in the Home of the Incurables, 183d Street and Third Avenue in New York, NY. He had been a resident at the facility for about a year, after suffering a severe stroke of paralysis, and a subsequent attack resulted in his death. He left behind one daughter.
His work is preserved at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.
References
Independent research by the authors
New Hampshire Scenery
Who Was Who in American Art