Patrick Henry Bruce was drawn to Paris early in his career and resided there from 1904 until just before his death in 1936. A major artist of unique vision from the early American modernist period, Bruce created a small body of work of about 100 paintings and was well-established as a student of fellow American artist Robert Henri early in his career. In Paris, he participated in the most avant-garde circles—visiting the salons of legendary collectors and arts patrons Gertrude and Leo Stein, becoming friends with French modernist master Henri Matisse, and exhibiting at the 1913 Salon d'Automne.

There are about 30 geometric still lifes from Bruce's post-1918 period according to the catalogue raisonné of 1980: at least twenty-five extant compositions in this mode along with four others that are identified from installation photos. Utilizing objects from his Parisian apartment, Bruce created elaborate tabletop arrangements circa 1922-24 that reflect his “continuing debt to Cézanne in that they are consistently the most ‘unfinished’ of the late works. Entire expanses of canvas are unpainted, serving to alleviate the otherwise tumultuous proliferation of shapes; in this sense they are among Bruce's most radical works.” [1] 

[1] William C. Agee and Barbara Rose, Patrick Henry Bruce, American Modernist: A Catalogue Raisonné, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1979, 35.