Maximilien Luce

(French, 1858-1941)

French Neo-Impressionist Maximilien Luce is as well known for his anarchist political beliefs as he is for his artworks. A prolific painter, illustrator, engraver and graphic artist, Luce’s subject matter was often rooted in his passionate political beliefs. Luce’s painting style alternated between Impressionism and Pointillism.

Born March 13, 1858 in Paris, France to working class parents, Luce apprenticed under wood engraver Henri-Théophile Hildebrand beginning at age 14. He took evening drawing classes and also began experimenting with oil painting. After a brief stint at the Gobelins tapestry factory, Luce began working at the studio of Eugene Froment, producing woodcuts for print publications. There, he became friends with Léo Gausson and Émile-Gustave Cavallo-Péduzzik, with whom he traveled around Lagny-sur-Marne painting Impressionist landscapes.

After a military stint from 1879 to 1883, Luce embarked on a full-time painting career. His friend Cavallo-Péduzzi introduced him to Georges Seurat’s Divisionist technique, which then influenced his Pointillist style defined by stippled brushwork and color harmonies. In 1887, Luce exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Indépendants where his paintings caught the attention of Camille Pissarro and Paul Signac, who purchased his one of his paintings.

Thereafter, Luce exhibited annually with the Neo-Impressionists. He aligned with both their artistic techniques and their political philosophy of anarchism. Many of his illustrations were featured in socialist periodicals. On 8 July 1894, Luce was arrested on suspected involvement in the 24 June assassination of French President Marie François Sadi Carnot. He spent 42 days in Mazas Prison, and later published 10 lithographs depicting his imprisonment.

At the end of his life, Luce withdrew from activism and returned to Impressionist painting. The year before his death on February 7, 1941, Luce married his common-law wife, Ambroisine "Simone" Bouin, who had been his model and muse since 1893 and was the mother of his two sons.