Edward Caledon Bruce

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Edward Caledon Bruce (1825–1900) was an American painter, author, and publisher from Winchester, Virginia. He became deaf in his teens after scarlet fever, but that did not stop his love of art. He studied with Thomas Sully in Philadelphia and kept a diary that he used to express gratitude for what sight could still reveal in nature.

Bruce married Eliza T. Hubard and had two daughters. He published the Winchester Virginian newspaper and contributed to national magazines like Harper’s Weekly and Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. The Bruce family owned five slaves, and he may have taught reading to some of them. He also wrote several books, including a 250-page volume about the 1876 Centennial Exposition.

During the Civil War, Bruce could not fight because of his deafness, but he produced war art in Richmond, painting portraits of important figures. His most famous work is a portrait of General Robert E. Lee painted in 1864–65. He also painted General Stonewall Jackson and Colonel John S. Mosby. The Lee portrait became highly regarded and is connected to Virginia institutions; a version of it is in the National Portrait Gallery.

After the war, Bruce kept painting and created more than 70 known works, mostly portraits. The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley holds the largest collection of his portraits. Other works are in places like Abram’s Delight (a self-portrait), the Battle of Port Republic Jackson portrait at Stonewall Jackson’s Headquarters Museum, and the Virginia Historical Society.

Bruce died in 1900 and was remembered as a prominent editor, a staunch secessionist, and a skilled artist. He is also recognized in Virginia’s Deaf Culture Digital Library.