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Edward Bright Bruce
Untitled (Portrait of a Woman)
Circa 1930

Name: Untitled (Portrait of a Woman)
Brand: Edward Bright Bruce
Rating: 4 (2 reviews)

$5,000List Price

About the Item

Oil on board, signed "Edward Bruce" (indistinctly) lower right, 18 x 15.5 inches, in an attractive frame measuring 24.25 x 22 inches. Often associated with art’s “new spirit of classicism,” Edward Bright Bruce’s works were known for a clarity, simplicity, and seriousness that critics related to Oriental art, Cubism, and the Italian primitives. Bruce’s “Portrait of a Woman” bears these hallmarks, with its clean lines and matte application of paint and finish. Painter, collector, businessman, and an important figure in the New Deal art programs under Franklin D. Roosevelt, Bruce left his mark not just on the art scene in California, but on the country as a whole. Born in Dover Plains, New York in 1879, Edward “Ned” Bruce began painting landscapes at age 14 but at first did not pursue an art career, instead earning a law degree from Columbia in 1904. At the age of 43 he gave up his business career and turned his full attention to painting, pursuing art study in Italy under Maurice Sterne. Bruce was active in California at a time critical to the development of the California School, and Millard Sheets in particular commented that Bruce was influential on his work. Bruce exhibited with Sheets and Charles Reiffel at the Dalzell Hatfield Galleries in Los Angeles in 1931, and in 1932 he won the Mrs. Walter Harrison Fisher Prize at the city’s Ebell Salon annual exhibition. His solo shows at New York’s Milch Galleries in 1932 and 1934 were very well-received, and his work was compared to that of Georgia O’Keeffe. Bruce was asked to help organize and head the New Deal’s Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) in 1933, and the Section of Painting and Sculpture in 1934. A wealthy man from his years in business, it was said that Bruce never accepted any remuneration for his work for the government, and actually spent much of his own money on furthering the New Deal programs he was involved in. Extremely effective and well- liked in Washington, “Ned” Bruce continued working until a series of strokes forced him into retirement. Bruce passed away in Hollywood, Florida in 1943. His collection of Chinese paintings was donated to Harvard University’s Fogg Museum.

Creator:
Edward Bright Bruce (1879 - 1943, American)
Creation Year:
Circa 1930
Dimensions:
Height: 24.25 in (61.6 cm)Width: 22 in (55.88 cm)
Medium:
Oil,Board
Movement Style:
American Modern
Period:
20th Century
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Beverly Hills, CA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU43731458183

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