Biographie
1858–1941
Born in Paris in a family of modest means, Maximilien Luce was a talented draughtsman and first trained as an engraver. Luce became a full-time painter in 1883 whilst moving around in the libertine and anarchist movements of fin-de-siècle’ Paris.
Luce tried to depict the violent effects of light, using the Divisionism technique of the Neo-Impressionists, as invented by Georges Seurat. Luce exhibited seven paintings at the 1887 ‘Salon des Indépendants’ where critics described his technique as Pointillism. Luce continued to exhibit at this yearly event until his death in 1941.
During the late 1880s, Luce met Paul Signac, the celebrated art critic Félix Fénéon and Camille Pissarro. In 1889, Luce participated in the ‘Salon des XX’ in Brussels. Here he met the Symbolist poet Emile Verhaeren and fellow Neo-Impressionist painter Theo Van Rysselberghe. Luce also exhibited work at the ‘Salon des XX’ in 1892.
In 1892, Luce joined Pissarro on a trip to London before visiting Paul Signac in Saint-Tropez. In 1893 Luce spent time in Brittany. During the mid-1890s, Luce moved away from Divisionism in favour of a more classical form of Impressionism to render his Belgian industrial landscapes executed during a trip to Charleroi in 1895, and his famous views of the large Parisian building sites, instigated by Napoleon III and his prefect Haussmann.
As an artist, Luce claimed a level of stylistic independence due to his activities as the illustrator of the weekly anarchist paper Le Père Peinard, and the daily paper Les Temps nouveaux. As such he was able to imbue his abundant production with different stylistic flavours, from his Pointillist 1880s work to a more classic style during the early 20th Century. Luce’s first one-man show at the legendary Durand-Ruel gallery in Paris in 1899 proved to be a public and critical success. In 1930, Luce replaced Paul Signac as President of the ‘Société des Artistes Indépendants’, a position he kept for a decade. Luce died in Paris in 1941.