William Blair Bruce

Canadian (1859 - 1906)

William Blair Bruce was a Canadian painter.
Based on ArtValue.ca records, William Blair Bruce's estimated art value is C$60,000 (*)

William Blair Bruce's work could be available for sale at public auction with prices in the range of C$500 - C$500,000, or even much higher.

From ArtValue.ca records, the highest price paid at auction for an oil painting work attributed to William Blair Bruce (1859-1906) was C$264,000 - paid for "Picking Pears in Barbizon (The Pear Orchard), 1882" at Cowley Abbott in Toronto on Thu, Jun 8, 2023.
ArtValue.ca has 11 auction art sale records for their oil painting results, with prices in the range of C$500 to C$500,000.

Marine Sunset (1896)
oil on canvas
Dimensions - 27.9 cms x 36.2 cms (11 ins x 14.25 ins)

Lot for sale by Heffel Auction House, Vancouver
Lot# 153
Wed, Nov 23, 2016

Estimate $30,000 - $40,000
Sold for CAD $94,400

Heffel Auction House Biography and Notes

William Blair Bruce was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and received his early art education there. He was among the first Canadian artists to go to Paris for training, and once there, although he returned to Canada on several trips, he spent the rest of his life in France and Sweden. He achieved considerable success in Europe - his work was accepted to be shown at the prestigious Salon des Champs-Élysées and also at the Salon des Indépendants, and altogether he exhibited in a dozen Salon shows. In 1887 he spent time in Giverny, the home of Claude Monet, an experience that reinforced the influence of Impressionism in his work. Marine Sunset is a classic Impressionist work, painted on the spot. With its transcendent atmospheric effects and glowing soft pastels illuminated by deeper orange and coral tones, it is a sublime painting. The inscription refers to the island of Gotland in Sweden. Bruce met the Swedish sculptor Carolina Benedicks in France in 1885, and they married and later established a residence and studio on the western side of Gotland.

(*) Value is calculated as an average of the top oil painting sale records from ArtValue.ca database.
This information is not intended to substitute professional advice.
To estimate the value of a specific artwork created by William Blair Bruce, follow some of the advice from our Valuating art page, or contact an art specialist if our automated estimate value is greater than C$2,500.