Patrick Henry Bruce
Patrick Henry Bruce (* 25. March 1881 in Campbell County , Virginia ; † 12. November 1936 in New York City ) was an American painter of Cubism .
biography
A descendant of Patrick Henry , Bruce was born in Campbell County, Virginia, the second of four children. His family had once owned the large Berry Hill estate , which had been worked by over 3,000 slaves. Berry Hill Estate was originally part of an estate of the British Crown of 105,000 acres, which was given to William Byrd II in 1728. The Civil War severely reduced the wealth of the Bruce family.
Patrick Henry Bruce began his career as a painter in 1898 in evening classes at the Art Club of Richmond and worked during the day in a real estate agency. His oldest surviving painting is from 1900.
In 1902 Bruce moved to New York, where he studied with William Merritt Chase , Robert Henri and Kenneth Hayes Miller . From February 1904 he lived in Paris, where he stayed until 1933. Although he slowly developed into a modern painter, his work from 1908 shows influences from Renoir and Cézanne . In the same year he was one of the first to enroll in Matisse's painting school.
Bruce exhibited regularly at the Salon d'Automne and met many of the avant-garde artists of the early 20th century. During a period of close friendship with Sonia and Robert Delaunay from 1912 to 1914, his paintings were influenced by Orphic Cubism , but ultimately Bruce never joined a school. Although some art historians have associated him with synchromism , he neither exhibited with the synchromists, nor did he adapt their theories or give his pictures synchronistic names.
The style of his mature work anticipated the purism developed by Léger and Ozenfant in the 1920s. In his paintings since 1918 he arranged flat, angular geometric shapes, executed in evenly applied, matt colors. His work was admired by Marcel Duchamp and could also have influenced the style of his former teacher Matisse in the mural La Danse (1932–33, in the Barnes Foundation ).
Bruce was extremely self-critical and destroyed many of his paintings, leaving only about 100 works. He died of suicide in New York City on November 12, 1936.
literature
- Agee, William C .; Rose, Barbara, 1979, Patrick Henry Bruce: American Modernist (exhibition catalog), Houston: Museum of Fine Arts
Individual evidence
- ↑ Agee and Rose 1979, p. 42.
- ^ Agee and Rose 1979, p.8.
- ↑ Agee and Rose 1979, p. 6.
- ↑ Agee and Rose 1979, p.11.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bruce, Patrick Henry |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American Cubism painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 25, 1881 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Campbell County , Virginia |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 12, 1936 |
| Place of death | New York City |