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As an expatriate living in Paris for over thirty years, it is no surprise that Patrick Henry Bruce embraced European modernism, experimenting with its various forms: Fauvism, Cubism, Orphism, and Purism. Ultimately he arrived at a distinctive approach in which he depicted still lifes using quasi-geometric shapes. Like many other avant-garde artists in Paris—both American and European—he was befriended by noted collectors Gertrude and Leo Stein. Bruce met with some success and was selected for several juried Salon d’Automne exhibitions.

A descendant of Founding Father Patrick Henry, Bruce was born on a Virginia plantation, variously given as Long Island in Campbell County, or one near South Boston in Halifax County. While working in a real estate office during the day, at age sixteen he began evening classes at the Art Club of Richmond, from 1898 to 1902. During this same period, 1901–1902, he also took instruction at the Virginia Mechanical Institute in Richmond. Moving north, he studied with William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri at the New York Art School, 1902–1903. The exact timing of his departure for France is unclear, either late 1903 or early 1904.
 
Fairly soon after his arrival in Paris, he fell under the spell of such French masters as Pierre-August Renoir and started emulating their brushwork and color. He also met and married Helen Kibbey, a fellow American artist who was studying abroad. In 1908 he took classes with Henri Matisse at his private non-commercial school. While there Bruce was introduced to the structured approach of Paul Cézanne. Like both his earlier instructors, Chase and Cézanne, Bruce concentrated on a series of still life paintings. Despite his objections, four of his paintings were included in the famed 1913 Armory Show in New York, which introduced American artists to the latest styles from Europe. It generated a good deal of controversy; also included were canvases by George Bellows, Edward Hopper, George Luks, Enid Yandell, Edmund Ashe, Paul Rohland, Gaines Ruger Donoho, Edward Manigault and Anne Goldthwaite. Remaining abroad, Bruce did not see the exhibition. For the next several years, Bruce dedicated himself to a series of still lifes influenced by the colors and forms of modern artists Sonia and Robert Delaunay, with whom he’d developed a close friendship. 

By 1919, his wife had separated from him and taken their young son to New York. Bruce remained abroad and supported himself by refurbishing and selling antique furniture. Many of his late paintings—hard-edged abstracted tabletop still lifes—reflect this activity with their preponderance of curved and geometric shapes. His work sold less and less, seemingly misunderstood by the public, leading to his increasing isolation and exacerbating his poor health. By 1930 he abandoned painting; three years later he moved to Versailles after destroying much of his earlier work. In 1936 he returned to New York and, disillusioned by the reception his art had received from the public, committed suicide.