Maximilien Luce – A Neo-Impressionist Artist

October 11th, 2008 by discover

A Painting (in the Pointalism style) by Maximilien Luce.

We went to Saint Tropez a couple of weeks ago, to go to the musee l’Annonciade with our friends Alex and Josette. There was an exhibition of Maximilien Luce (1858–1941) that we wanted to see.

Born in Paris, Maximilien Luce was, along with his friends Seurat and Signac, one of the original founders of the Neo-impressionist School. The neo-impressionist movement is based on the scientific study of light and the analysis of prismatic effect of colors.

Luce was also a great friend of Camille Pissarro, Georges Seurat, Theo Van Rysselberghe and Louis Valtat.

For a number of years Luce painted only in the pointillist style, but over time he eventually adopted a looser

Drawings of his friends by Luce.

technique. He is perhaps best known for his landscapes and urban scenes which show the life of the working class (builders, dockers, labourers) which occupies a predominant place in his work.

A painter, lithographer and draftsman, Maximilien Luce was born into a poor family in Paris on March 13, 1858. After an initial training as a wood carver at the Ecole des Arts décoratifs, he began to study engraving in 1872 and took evening courses to deepen his knowledge.

In 1876 he entered the shop of the engraver Eugène Froment (1844-1900), with whom he traveled to London in 1877.

After his return to Paris in 1879 Luce began his 4-year military service. During his service and later, up to 1885, he studied at the Académie Suisse and the studio of Carolus-Duran (1837-1917) at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.

In his painting, he became influenced by Impressionism.

In the 1880s he met and established friendly contacts with many Parisian painters, including Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Georges Seurat (1859-1891) and Paul Signac (1863-1935).

Through Camille Pissarro, Luce came under the influence of Anarchist ideas and formed friendships with the Anarchist writers and journalists Jules Christophe, Jean Grave, Georges Darien and Emile Pouget.

In 1894 he became involved in the Trial of the Thirty and served a short term of imprisonment.

Maximilien Luce painting of a factory at night

Until 1904 Luce lived in Montmartre, and he liked to paint street scenes from there.

From 1904-1924, he lived in Auteuil (near Paris), but then he moved back to Paris.

Besides street scenes, factories and wharfs, he painted numerous landscapes on his travels through the Etampes, Normandy and Brittany.

During the First World War he also painted war scenes, of wounded and homecoming soldiers.

In 1934, Maximilien Luce was elected President of the Société des Artistes Indépendants after Signac’s retirement, but shortly afterwards he resigned in a protest against the society’s policy to restrict the admission of Jewish artists.

Maximilien Luce died in Paris in 1941. He remains an important artist in Pointillism and social realism.