Description:

Blanche Canfield Bruce
Indiana, (1880 - 1945)
floral still life
oil on masonite
Signed lower right.

Biography written by Dorothea Lewis-Hamann: Emma Blanche Canfield was born in Wells, Minnesota on September 9, 1879 to Henry and Josephine (McKinster) Canfield. Blanche, as she preferred to be called, received her elementary and high school education in Waseca, Minnesota before moving to Oregon with her family.

She attended Eastern Oregon State Teachers College and met Edwin during her senior year. She apparently did well enough in school that she was hired as a critic teacher after she graduated. Critic teachers traditionally were experienced teachers that served as role models for students who desired to enter the teaching profession. It would have been considered quite an accomplishment for Blanche to have attained such a responsible position at so young an age.

As a child, Blanche was an artistic prodigy. She was only ten when she began to study painting under a professional artist. After her September 1903 marriage, Blanche resumed painting but turned it into a career. She graduated from the Chicago Art Institute and she studied in New York with artist Susan Ricker Knox. She traveled throughout the United States painting landscapes. Her landscapes and still-lifes were exhibited in eight Hoosier Salons and she had several art shows around Terre Haute. Shortly before she died, the director of the Swope Gallery said of her still-lifes that, Mrs. Bruce favors color, plenty of it, laid on vigorously.

Blanche Bruce was also a well-respected interior decorator who worked with Ross Crane, a nationally known interior decorator for eighteen years. She gave lectures on interior design and had clients in St. Louis and Detroit.

She was a member of Terre Haute's City Planning Commission, serving at times as vice-chair and chair. During her vice-chairmanship a growth plan for the city was adopted which provided for zoning to separate industrial and residential areas. The City Planning Commission also approved the plotting of grounds for new subdivisions.

Blanche was a charter member of the Woman's Department Club and the Pen and Brush Club. She was president of the Vigo County Federated Woman's Club, an active member of Indiana State Teachers College's Faculty Wives Club and vice chairman of the woman's division of the Vigo County War Finance Committee.

Blanche Bruce died on August 26, 1945 at Union Hospital in Terre Haute.

  • Dimensions: 24"H x 24"W(board), 29 1/2"H x 29 1/2"W(frame)
  • Medium: oil on masonite

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May 21, 2025 5:00 PM EDT
Indianapolis, IN, US

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