1858 -1941 · Paris, London, Charleroi, Brittany and Rolleboise

A divided touch, industrial nights and work scenes make Maximilien Luce the great passionate witness to the modern world among the neo-impressionists.

Maximilien Luce was born in Paris in 1858 into an artisan environment and died there in 1941. An apprentice wood engraver, he acquired precise knowledge of drawing and reproduction techniques very early on. After his military service, he turned to painting, frequented Carolus-Duran and met libertarian circles. Camille Pissarro, whose anarchist convictions he shared, introduced him in 1887 to the neo-impressionist group. Luce then adopted the division of tones: small juxtaposed touches of pure colors build light and volume in the viewer's eye. He exhibited at the Independents and became involved with Seurat, Signac, Cross and Félix Fénéon. Contrary to a vision detached from the landscape, he passionately describes workers, popular streets, construction sites, ports and factories. His stays in Charleroi produce nocturnal blast furnaces where flames and smoke make color vibrate. Paris, London and Rotterdam offer other images of industrial modernity. After 1897, his touch gradually widened without losing its light intensity. He painted Brittany, Tréport, Kermouster, the banks of the Seine and Rolleboise, where he settled permanently. Kermouster and his path reflect rural clarity; the Cliff near Tréport opposes mineral color and sea; the staircase of the workshop in Rolleboise transforms a familiar place with the sun. Also engraver and lithographer, Luce leaves an abundant body of work where landscape, work and social commitment remain inseparable. The "Maximilien Luce" selection notably compares Kermouster and Kermouster, the path. His reading favors drawing.

Maximilien Luce makes light a social force: it bursts on the sea, in the street or above the blast furnaces with the same passionate intensity.