A successful lawyer and businessman, Edward Bruce later turned to painting when he went to Italy for six years of art study and then returned to the United States in 1929. By that time, he was nationally recognized for his painting.

He was born in Dover Plains, New York and began painting landscapes at age 14 but did not pursue that talent until later. He got his law degree from Columbia Law School in 1904 and practiced law in New York and Manila and then went into foreign trade in the Far East. He also became president of the Pacific Development Corporation of California.

In 1929, he and his wife settled in California, living in Carmel, San Francisco, and Santa Barbara. He was active there until 1933 when he returned to the East and became an organizer in Washington DC of the Public Works of Art Project.

Bruce was also a collector of Chinese paintings and sculpture, and the collection is a prestigious part of the Fogg Museum.

Source:
Edan Hughes, Artists in California, 1786-1940