ROBERT S. DUNNING

Portrait and genre painter Robert Spear Dunning was born in Maine in 1829. As a boy, he was employed in a Fall River mill, and later worked in coastal shipping while studying art. He was living in Fall River in the late 1850’s, where he was a partner in the firm of Grouard & Dunning, artists. Around 1865, he began to focus on still-life paintings and in 1870 he founded the Fall River Evening Drawing School. He exhibited at the National Academy 1850 and 1880 and the American Art-Union in 1850. His style was characterized by bright colors and detail. He died in Massachusetts in 1905.