Edward Caldwell Spruce (1865[1] – 7 June 1922) was an English sculptor and artist who mainly worked in Leeds.[2]
Spruce was born in Knutsford, Cheshire in the summer of 1865.[3] [4] Between 1891 and 1893 he was a student at the Leeds College of Art where he also taught clay modelling.[3]
Spruce first worked at a local tile factory before moving to Burmantofts Pottery in Leeds, where he was the principal modeller.[5] His work there includes some fine panels on the Midland Hotel, Manchester.[5] He went to Paris to study art and exhibited a piece called "The Blind Man" at the 1908 Salon. He returned to Leeds to set up as a freelance artist with a studio in Chapeltown, Leeds.[4] In this he was successful, performing numerous portrait commissions of contemporarary figures including a bust of the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Sir James Kitson.[4] [6] Between 1906 and 1915 he exhibited at least four works at the Royal Academy in London.[3] He also created the panels for the war memorial at Bailiff Bridge in West Yorkshire.[3] 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 with a Grade II listing.
Spruce was also a noted member of the Leeds branch of the Savage Club, becoming its "Indian Chief" (i.e. president) in 1912.[4] He died in 1922 in Leeds.[4] [6]