CertLUCE Maximilien Post-impressionist painting early 20th century Paris Floods near the Pont Neuf 1910 Certificat

Biography

LUCE Maximilien (1858 / 1941)
Alongside Seurat de Signac and Cross, Maximilien Luce (1858-941) places most of his work in the pointillism or divisionism movement.

This period was relatively short in the painter's career, before he devoted himself to a more traditional painting marked by its luminosity and harmony borrowing from divisionism and impressionism.

Born in Paris on March 13, 1858 Maximilien Luce first worked as an apprentice.

He was 13 years old when the Parisian people rose up during the days of the Paris Commune. He will always remember this period with a personal commitment to his former Communard friends.
The son of a worker, he will always aspire to an egalitarian ideal, by featuring in his work the most humble workers: those on construction sites and steelworks, but also the small trades, the grinder, the pile drivers, the floor polishers.

In 1872, he enrolled in evening classes to become an engraver and in 1876 entered as a skilled worker in an engraving workshop at Froment, which produced engravings for numerous illustrated newspapers. He left in 1877 with Froment for London and returned to France in 1879 to carry out his military service, first in Brittany then in Paris where he studied under the direction of Carolus Duran.

He wanted to work outdoors, like the Impressionists, and this is why he received advice from Camille Pissarro, with whom he became friends, before meeting Paul Signac, Georges Seurat, Théo Van Rysselberghe and Louis Valtat, founders of the Neo-Impressionist school.
From then on, interested in research on the effects of light and the effects of prisms rendered by colors, he worked in a divisionist style, producing numerous pointillist paintings on life and the streets of Paris. In 1887, Maximilien Luce joined the Société des Indépendants alongside Paul Signac and took an active part in the exhibitions organized by the group. Wanting to be an active witness of his time, Maximilien Luce had adopted this egalitarian ideal, which he portrayed in his work. This did not prevent him from composing admirable landscapes by pushing the principles of impressionism to its extreme consequence by practicing the technique of pointillism. At the same time, he also collaborated with anarchist newspapers such as "Le Père Peinard" or "La Révolte" as well as "L'Assiette au Beurre", which were widely read at that time. He was involved in the "Trial of the Thirty" in 1894 and found himself imprisoned for 40 days with 22 of his friends for "anarchist activities", before taking refuge in Charleroi where he made divisionism known in Belgium.
Pissarro, Signac, Cross and the art critic Fénelon support Luce in his fight against inequalities. Always haunted by the memory of the Commune, around 1910 he painted "Long live the Commune", after Honoré Daumier, and around 1917, he composed the tragic "Execution of Varlin". Eugène Varlin was one of the highest figures of the March Revolution, arrested on May 28, 1871, arrested, mutilated, disfigured, and dragged to the top of Montmartre and executed without trial.

From the 1910s, Maximilien Luce, considering that he had fully exploited the divisionist technique, then moved towards a less strict technique by painting urban scenes and multiplying the representations of men at work in a post-impressionist style.
Installed in Rolleboise from 1920, he then produced numerous paintings representing landscapes that were less appreciated than his previous works. In 1935, he succeeded Paul Signac as president of the Society of Independent Artists, a position from which he resigned during the German occupation to mark his protest against the ban on Jewish artists from exhibiting. During his career, Maximilien Luce produced a significant number of oils, drawings and illustrations, especially in his early days, as well as lithographs. He also maintained a sustained correspondence with numerous painters, such as Seurat, Van Rysselberghe and Valtat, before dying in Paris on February 6, 1941.
Museums:

Besançon:
Museum of Fine Arts and Archeology:
Riverside

Paris :
Louvre Museum Department of Graphic Arts:
En route, Stretch of calm water in front of a bank, Kultur, The review, The Departure, The return - Landscape with figures resting under trees - River landscape, Portrait of Georges Seurat, seated, half-length, dressed in a red jacket - River lined with trees Paris;

Orsay Museum: The Louvre and the Pont Neuf, at night

Rennes:
Museum of Fine Arts:

TWO SITTING WOMEN, STANDING WOMAN WITH HANDS CLOSED, MAN IN BICORNE, SEEN FROM THE FRONT - STANDING MAN WITH HANDS IN POCKETS - STANDING MAN, BENDING - STANDING MAN, SEEN FROM BACK, A SEAL AT HIS FEET - STANDING MAN - MAN IN CAP - MAN SEEN FROM BACK - YOUNG MAN STANDING - WORKERS RESTING UNDER A BRIDGE

Dijon:
Museum of Fine Arts:

Portrait of Léo Gausson Giverny; Museum of Impressionisms Granville; Richard Anacreon Museum - Saint-Tropez

Grenoble:
Grenoble Museum:

Bouquet - The end of the day. Cement tank tops

Paris :
Orsay Museum:
THE SEINE AT HERBLAY - THE QUAY SAINT MICHEL AND NOTRE-DAME - THE PILE DRIVERS - THE PERMISSIONARIES - PORTRAIT OF A MAN - PORTRAIT OF CROSS - PORTRAIT OF FELIX FENEON (1861-1944) - QUAI DE BOULOGNE, BRIDGE OF SAINT CLOUD - A STREET OF PARIS UNDER THE COMMUNE (May 1871)

Paris :
Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean:
The old Rouen athlete; Museum of Fine Arts - Construction site in Paris

Saint-Tropez: Annonciade Museum
Canal in the north of France - Côte de la Citadelle - Portrait of Lucie Cousturier - View of the Gulf of Saint-Tropez

Troyes:
Museum of Modern Art: 
Garden seen from a high window - THE EARTHWORKERS

Versailles:
Lambinet Museum:
Church of Gisors - The fountain (Moulineux) - Paris, view of the Seine, at night - Paris, Saint-Gervais church - Normandy landscape, Bazincourt - Yonne village, Cussy-les-Forges
International museums:

Art Institute of Chicago, USA Cleveland Museum of Art, USA Davis Museum and Cultural Center, (Wellesley College)Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, USA Harvard University Art Museums Honolulu Museum of ArtIndiana University Art Museum (Bloomington) Indianapolis Museum of Art, USA Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA Minneapolis Institute of Arts, USA The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA New Art Gallery (Walsall, England)
Palazzo Ruspoli (Rome), Portland Museum of Art (Maine), USA Princeton University Art Museum, USA Saint Louis Art Museum (Missouri), USA San Diego Museum of Art (California), USA Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (Madrid)Wallraf-Richartz Museum (Cologne, Germany)- Saint-Tropez, 1892, - Notre Dame, View from Quai Michel, 1901/1904
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