Born in Hamilton, Canada, on October 10th, 1859, William Blair Bruce was one of that city's prominent native painters, although he lived most of his life in Europe. In his paintings, he frequently returned to the subject of recording ever-changing views including the movement of sea, clouds, chromatic and light conditions. His notebooks from the 1890s record the changing conditions of light and time, and his awareness of how paint and color works -- a tool to create images rather than simulate reality.

He received formal training in Hamilton, and in 1880 exhibited in the Ontario Society of Artists exhibition in Toronto. As a young man, he attended classes in law at the Hamilton Collegiate Institute and then joined his father's enterp...