Edward Bruce (1879 - 1943)

2. Vermont Countryside, c. 1930s

Oil on panel, 9 x 12 inches (unframed), 12 x 15 inches (framed), inscribed “EB to ER” lower left

$2,500

About the Artist

Edward Bruce was a painter and arts administrator during the Roosevelt administration. Born in 1879 in Dover Plains, NY, Edward Bruce initially was a successful lawyer in New York and the Philippines. In Manilla, Bruce bought and operated The Manilla Times, a daily newspaper. This caused Bruce to become more interested in trade and banking in China and throughout Asia, and he began to collect Chinese art. Bruce abandoned his career as a lawyer and businessman to travel to Italy for six years where he fell in love with art and painting. After his return to the US in 1929, he lived in California until moving to Washington DC to work as a lobbyist when he found he could not make a living as an artist during the Great Depression. There, he organized the Public Works of Art Project and served as a senior administrator across many other Federal art programs, including the Treasury Department's Section of Fine Art and the Commission on Fine Arts. As an artist, many of Bruce’s landscape works were influenced by the Chinese art he collected. He was named an associate member of the National Academy of Design and his art has been exhibited in museums such as the Luxembourg Gallery in Paris, the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and The Phillips Collection in Washington DC. Bruce is listed in Who Was Who in American Art and all other standard references.