Edward Bruce

Edward Bright Bruce (April 13, 1879 – January 26, 1943) was the administrator of the New Deal art projects of the United States Department of the Treasury: the Public Works of Art Project (1933–1934), the Section of Painting and Sculpture (1934–1943), and the Treasury Relief Art Project (1935–1938). Ned Bruce was a successful lawyer and entrepreneur before giving up his business career altogether at the age of 43 to become an artist. However, like most artists during the Depression, he found it impossible to make a living making art, and he grudgingly returned to business as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. In 1932 he joined the Treasury Department, where his expertise in monetary policy and art guided federal efforts to employ workers in the visual arts during the Great Depression in the United States. Biography Edward Bright Bruce was born in Dover Plains, New York, on April 13, 1879, the son of a Baptist minister. He began painting at the age of 14. He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1904 with high honors. He began practicing law in New York City and Manila in the Philippines with the law firm of Bruce, Lawrence, Ross and Block. While working in Manila, he bought and ran The Manila Times, a popular daily newspaper. In 1915 he changed his focus to banking and trade throughout China and the Far East with a company he created, the Pacific Development Corporation. Throughout this time Bruce continued painting and collecting art, particularly Chinese art. In 1922, he ended his business career and moved to Italy to study art with the American painter and sculptor Maurice Sterne. He left Italy in 1929 because of the oppressive Fascist conditions, and moved to California. His landscape paintings, which were influenced by the Chinese works in his collection, were featured in a number of one-person shows with excellent reviews in Paris, New York, and San Francisco.