John Bunyan Bristol was born in Hillsdale, New York, a small town east of Hudson, New York near the Massachusetts border. Although largely self-taught, Bristol is known to have studied briefly with early Hudson River painter Henry Ary, who is also thought to have given instruction to Bristol’s great contemporary, Sanford Robinson Gifford. Bristol assimilated the essential compositional traits of the Hudson River School and, throughout his life produced panoramic vistas with dark foregrounds, luminous middle grounds, and backgrounds vanishing in aerial perspective. Although he did make at least one painting foray into Florida, Bristol largely found his subject matter in the picturesque regions of the northeast. He traveled extensively, sketching and painting scenes of the Berkshires, the Adirondacks, the Connecticut River valley, and the White Mountains. Bristol established his studio in New York City in 1860 and remained there throughout his life.

Bristol was elected as an Associate member of the National Academy in 1860 and was granted full membership as an Academician in 1875. He was also a member of the Century Association from 1873 to his death in 1909. The artist exhibited extensively throughout his career and won awards at such major venues as the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, the Paris Exposition of 1889, and the Pan-American Exposition in 1901.

The work of John Bunyan Bristol is represented in the collections of the Peabody Institute (Baltimore), the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Hudson River Museum, the Huntington Library and Gallery, the Yale University Art Gallery, and the Wadsworth Atheneum, among others.