c. 1921

Still Life

American (active France), 1880 - 1936

Patrick Henry Bruce moved to Paris in 1904 and soon began frequenting the apartment of Gertrude and Leo Stein, where he was introduced to the latest trends in modern painting. In 1908, Bruce studied at the short-lived art school run by Henri Matisse, although his own work gravitated toward the structural rigor and broken brushstrokes of Paul Cézanne. His admiration for Cézanne naturally led Bruce to engage with Cubism, especially after meeting the French painter Robert Delaunay in the spring of 1912. Bruce developed his own signature painting style around 1920, when he began to integrate blocklike geometric forms into his still lifes.