Along with Henry Ward Ranger (1858-1916) and J. Francis Murphy (1853-1921), Bruce Crane popularized the tonalist style at the art colony in Old Lyme, Connecticut, where he spent his summers beginning about 1904. Crane’s focus on tonal painting grew out of his training with Alexander Helwig Wyant (1836-1892) and his interest in French Barbizon painting, which he encountered in France at Grez-sur-Loing in 1882. At Grez-sur-Loing, he was introduced to the art of Jean Charles Cazin (1841 -1901), a leading French landscape painter of the nineteenth century. Although Crane was a leading practitioner of American tonalism, he was also accomplished in impressionist and Barbizon styles of painting.  

Crane exhibited at the National Academy of Design regularly from 1876, and was elected an Academician in 1901. He moved to Bronxville, New York in 1914 and resided there for more than two decades before his death in 1937.