Maximilien Luce

A French artist, a representative of late Impressionism and a follower of Neo-impressionism (pointillism).

Was born into the family of a railway employee who lived in Montparnasse.

He is famous not only for his paintings, but also for graphic works, and book illustrations. Luce actively took part in different exhibitions, and also had an active life position: he founded Groupe de Lagny art group in Lagny together with L. Pissarro; was elected the vice-president, and then the president of the Society of Independent.

The artist’s works (more than 4 thousand paintings and 3 thousand drawings) are in the collections of many museums in the US and France, Spain and Germany, Italy, etc.

Key ideas :

– Developing the trend of the chosen art movement, Luce overcomes the randomness and fragmentation of the composition typical of Impressionists.

– In the landscape, Luce is more spontaneous, relaxed and sincere than in compositions with figures. However, he is less constrained by generally accepted rules than Seurat and Signac, and therefore conveys the finest shades of the models more brightly and even more realistically. In his paintings, water is infinitely mobile, sparkles with reflexes, multicolored rays. Sky and clouds, grass and trees are changeable, their outlines are elusive. Another favorite motif for the master is the views of Montmartre and the night city.

– In addition to landscapes, many portraits and genre scenes, created with small individual strokes, appear in his work. And the key idea of ​​the artist – to fill the space around the figures with air and light – is achieved by virtuosic modeling from the points of different colors.

A certain atmosphere in his canvases gave you a sense of the 17th century of landscape painting. The beauty of light and dark colors, depth, high sky, the breadth of distant horizons are not disturbed by buildings or trees.