Maximilien Luce (French, 1858-1941) Baignade dans la Cure, 1909 Oil on canvas 25-3/4 x 32 inches (65.4 x 81.3 cm) Si...

Auction amount: $40,000.00

Sold: Dec 9, 2015

Maximilien Luce (French, 1858-1941)

Paintings

Also known as: Luce, Maximillian

Biography:
Trained as a printmaker and draftsman, Paris-born Maximilien Luce is best known for his contribution to early 20th-century Pointillism, or Neo-Impressionism. During the 1920s, in his mid-career, Luce began frequenting the picturesque Île-de-France countryside west of Paris for rural subjects, and as he increasingly worked en plein air near towns like Rolleboise and Guernes, he developed a more spontaneous, painterly style. Luce's heightened emphasis on line and patterning also hearkens back to his early days as an engraver-illustrator. Many of his canvases, with their vibrant palettes and simplified compositions, speak to the beauty and honesty of the rural working-class life that Luce championed.

Museums showcasing some of Luce's finest works include the Musée d'Orsay, Paris; National Gallery of Norway, Oslo; Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands; Petit Palais Museum, Geneva; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario; and National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.