Edward Caldwell Spruce (1865 – 7 June 1922) was an English sculptor and artist who mainly worked in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

Biography

Spruce was born in

Knutsford Knutsford () is a market town in the borough of Cheshire East, in Cheshire, England. Knutsford is south-west of Manchester, north-west of Macclesfield and 12.5 miles (20 km) south-east of Warrington. The population at the 2011 Census wa ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

in the summer of 1865.Oak Leaves part 9, Autumn 2009
Edward Caldwell Spruce (1866-1922) and the Savage Club. Between 1891 and 1893 he was a student at the

Leeds College of Art Leeds Arts University is a specialist arts further and higher education institution, based in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with a main campus opposite the University of Leeds. History It was founded in 1846 as the Leeds Scho ...

where he also taught clay modelling. Spruce first worked at a local tile factory before moving to

Burmantofts Pottery Burmantofts Pottery was the common trading name of a manufacturer of ceramic pipes and construction materials, named after the Burmantofts district of Leeds, England. Company history The business began in 1859 when fire clay was discovered in a ...

in Leeds, where he was principal modeller.''Burmantofts Pottery'' (1983) Bradford Art Gallery & Museums and Leeds City Museum p15 His work there includes some fine panels on the

Midland Hotel, Manchester The Midland Hotel Manchester is a grand hotel in Manchester, England. Opened in 1903, it was built by the Midland Railway to serve Manchester Central railway station, its northern terminus for its rail services to London St Pancras. It faces on ...

. He went to Paris to study art and returned to Leeds to set up as a freelance artist with a studio in

Chapeltown, Leeds Chapeltown is a suburb of north-east Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England. It is part of the Leeds City Council Ward of Chapel Allerton. It is approximately one mile north of Leeds city centre. Location and boundaries Chapeltown has no officia ...

. In this he was successful, performing numerous portrait commissions of contemporarary figures including a bust of the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Sir James Kitson. Between 1906 and 1915 he exhibited at least four works at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

in London. He also created the panels for the war memorial at

Bailiff Bridge Bailiff Bridge is a village north from Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England, and is from Huddersfield and from Bradford. Bailiff Bridge falls within the Hipperholme and Lightcliffe Ward of Calderdale Council. The village is centred on the A64 ...

in West Yorkshire. Possibly Spruce's best known work is the 1918 large multi-figure memorial to the Leeds businessman Sam Wilson at Lawnswood Cemetery in Leeds. The monument is recognised by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

with a Grade II listing. Spruce was also a noted member of the Leeds branch of the

Savage Club The Savage Club, founded in 1857, is a gentlemen's club in London, named after the poet, Richard Savage. Members are drawn from the fields of art, drama, law, literature, music or science. History The founding meeting of the Savage Club took ...

, becoming its "Indian Chief" (i.e. president) in 1912. He died in 1922 in Leeds.

References

External links

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Portrait of Edward Caldwell Spruce
by Mark Senior 1898
Photograph of Edward Caldwell Spruce
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spruce, Edward Caldwell 1865 births 1922 deaths 19th-century British sculptors 19th-century English male artists 20th-century British sculptors 20th-century English male artists Alumni of Leeds Arts University English male sculptors People from Knutsford