Around 1880 a significant number of ambitious American painters—most of them European-trained—sought to replicate the effects that Whistler had developed for his Nocturnes through unobtrusive brushwork and softened contours. Dennis Miller Bunker (1861–1890) and John Henry Twachtman (1853–1902) emulated Whistler's technical achievements but extended them to landscapes of brighter color and larger scale. Even John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) and William Merritt Chase (1849–1916), naturally inclined toward bold brushwork, set aside overt displays of manual dexterity in favor of a quiet, Whistlerian mood. As one British painter observed in 1884, "The influence of Whistler on the young art of . . . America can scarcely be overestimated."