Artist Patrick Henry Bruce (3rd from left) & friends/associates in front of the entrance to a 300px Patrick Henry Bruce - Painting

Patrick Henry Bruce (March 25, 1881 – November 12, 1936) was an American

cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

painter.

Biography

A descendant of

Patrick Henry Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736June 6, 1799) was an American attorney, planter, politician and orator known for declaring to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): " Give me liberty, or give me death!" A Founding Father, he served as the first a ...

, Bruce was born in

Campbell County, Virginia Campbell County is a United States county situated in the south central part of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Located in the Piedmont region of Virginia, Campbell borders the Blue Ridge Mountains. The county seat is Rustburg. Grounded on a t ...

, the second of four children.Agee and Rose 1979, p.42. His family had once owned a huge plantation, Berry Hill, worked by over 3,000

slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. Berry Hill Estate originally was part of a tract granted by the English Crown in 1728 to William Byrd II. (Berry Hill is now a resort and conference center outside

South Boston, Virginia South Boston, formerly Boyd's Ferry, is a town in Halifax County, Virginia, United States. The population was 8,142 at the 2010 census, down from 8,491 at the 2000 census. It is the most populous town in Halifax County. History On December ...

and is a National Historic Landmark.) The

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

left the Bruces' wealth greatly diminished. Bruce began taking evening classes at the Art Club of

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, Californi ...

in 1898, while working in a real estate office during the daytime. His earliest known extant painting dates from 1900. In 1902 he moved to New York, where he studied with

William Merritt Chase William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons School of Design. ...

Robert Henri Robert Henri (; June 24, 1865 – July 12, 1929) was an American painter and teacher. As a young man, he studied in Paris, where he identified strongly with the Impressionists, and determined to lead an even more dramatic revolt against A ...

, and Kenneth Hayes Miller. By February 1904 he was in Paris, where he would live until 1933. Although his evolution toward a modernist style was gradual, his works of 1908 reveal the influence of

Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Re ...

and Cézanne, and in that year he was among the first to enroll in

Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primar ...

's school. Bruce exhibited regularly in the

Salon d'Automne The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The ...

, and met many of the leading artists of the early twentieth century

avant garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or 'vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical D ...

. During a period of close friendship with

Sonia Sonia, Sonja or Sonya, a name of Greek origin meaning wisdom, may refer to: People * Sonia (name), a feminine given name (lists people named, Sonia, Sonja and Sonya) :* Sonia (actress), Indian film actress in Malayalam and Tamil films :* Sonia ...

and

Robert Delaunay Robert Delaunay (12 April 1885 – 25 October 1941) was a French artist who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, co-founded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. His later works were more abstra ...

during 1912–1914 his paintings were influenced by Orphism, but Bruce never formed an attachment to any school. Although he never exhibited with the Synchromists or gave his paintings Synchromist titles, in 1916 he developed a form of abstract painting that strongly resembled

Morgan Russell Morgan Russell (January 25, 1886 – May 29, 1953) was a modern American artist. With Stanton Macdonald-Wright, he was the founder of Synchromism, a provocative style of abstract painting that dates from 1912 to the 1920s. Russell's "synchromie ...

's synchromist compositions of muscular, flat color areas (for example, see Bruce's ''Composition I''). The style of his mature work anticipated the

Purism Purism, referring to the arts, was a movement that took place between 1918 and 1925 that influenced French painting and architecture. Purism was led by Amédée Ozenfant and Charles Edouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier). Ozenfant and Le Corbusier f ...

developed by Léger and Ozenfant in the 1920s. In his paintings of 1918 and later, hard-edged geometric forms are arranged as on a tabletop and rendered in evenly applied, flat colors. His work was admired by

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

and may have influenced the style adopted by his former teacher, Matisse, in his

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spanis ...

''La Danse'' (1932–33, in the

Barnes Foundation The Barnes Foundation is an art collection and educational institution promoting the appreciation of art and horticulture. Originally in Merion, the art collection moved in 2012 to a new building on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Penn ...

Merion, Pennsylvania Merion Station, also known as Merion, is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It borders Philadelphia to its west and is one of the communities that make up the Philadelphia Main Line. Merion Station is part of Lower M ...

). Intensely self-critical, Bruce destroyed a great many of his paintings, and only about one hundred works remain. He committed suicide with the drug

Veronal Barbital (or barbitone), marketed under the brand names Veronal for the pure acid and Medinal for the sodium salt, was the first commercially available barbiturate. It was used as a sleeping aid (hypnotic) from 1903 until the mid-1950s. The chemic ...

''New York Magazine'', Sep 10, 1979
/ref> in New York City on November 12, 1936. File:Plums by Patrick Henry Bruce 1912.jpeg, ''Plums'', 1912 File:Still Life Patrick Henry Bruce.jpeg, ''Still Life'', ca. 1912 File:Patrick Henry Bruce - Landscape - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Landscape'', c. 1910–1914 File:Composition I by Patrick Henry Bruce.jpeg, ''Composition I'', 1916 File:Composition II by Patrick Henry Bruce.jpeg, ''Composition II'', c. 1916 File:Composition III by Patrick Henry Bruce.jpeg, ''Composition III'', 1916 File:Composition IV by Patrick Henry Bruce.jpeg, ''Composition IV'', 1916 File:Composition V by Patrick Henry Bruce 1916.jpeg, ''Composition V'', 1916 File:Patrick Henry Bruce - Peinture.jpg, ''Painting'', 1917–1918 File:Patrick Henry Bruce Forms about 1918 .jpg, ''Forms'', 1918

Notes

References

*Agee, William C.; Rose, Barbara, 1979, ''Patrick Henry Bruce: American Modernist'' (exhibition catalogue), Houston: Museum of Fine Arts *https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_1964_300297016.pdf {{DEFAULTSORT:Bruce, Patrick Henry 20th-century American painters American male painters Painters who committed suicide Cubist artists 1881 births 1936 suicides People from Campbell County, Virginia Painters from Virginia Drug-related suicides in New York City Barbiturates-related deaths Suicides in New York City Drug-related deaths in New York City 20th-century American male artists

Biography

See also

Notes

References