Patrick Henry Bruce

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Patrick Henry Bruce (March 25, 1881 – November 12, 1936) was an American cubist painter. He was born in Campbell County, Virginia, the second of four children. His family once owned Berry Hill, a large plantation. The Civil War reduced their wealth, and Bruce later studied art in the evenings in Richmond (1898) while working in real estate. His earliest surviving painting is from 1900. In 1902 he moved to New York to study with leading artists, and by 1904 he was living in Paris, where he stayed until 1933.

Bruce’s style gradually moved toward modernism. In 1908 his work shows Renoir and Cézanne influences, and he was among the first to study with Matisse. He exhibited in the Salon d’Automne and met many important artists. From 1912 to 1914 he was friends with Sonia and Robert Delaunay, who influenced him, though he never joined a specific school. In 1916 he created an abstract style with flat, bright colors arranged like tabletop forms, similar to synchromist ideas. His mature work anticipated Purism in the 1920s. After 1918 his paintings used hard-edged geometric shapes with even colors.

His work was admired by Marcel Duchamp and may have influenced Matisse’s La Danse mural (1932–33). Bruce was very self-critical and destroyed many paintings, leaving about 100 works. He died by suicide in New York City on November 12, 1936, by taking Veronal.