Comparison to Coombs

Bannister’s capacity to find luminosity and poetry in seemingly ordinary scenery was sustained by the younger artist Laura Coombs Hills (1859–1952). Hanging in the parlor on the ground floor of the Eustis Estate is The Shaded Stream, which she painted in her hometown of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Although Hills became better known for her pastels and miniatures, she excelled at Barbizon-inspired landscapes like this, made around the same time Bannister created his.

Left: Edward Mitchell Bannister (c. 1828–1901), *Woman Reading Under a Tree*, 1880–85, oil on canvas, 14 1/4 x 18 ½ in., Museum Purchase, 2018.35.1.
Right: Laura Coombs Hills (1859–1952), *The Shaded Stream*, c. 1880, oil on canvas, 24 x 28 x 3 ¼ in., Museum Purchase, 2016.56.1.

Learn more about The Shaded Stream below.