Maximilien Luce “Les Baigneurs Au Jet D’eau” Oil Painting

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Maximilien Luce “Les Baigneurs Au Jet D’eau” Oil Painting

About the Item

Maximilien Luce (French, 1858-1941) Les baigneurs au jet d'eau. Swimmers At The Fountain. A stunning Art Nouveau, Art Deco Pathetic style evening scene of nude swimmers at a pond with a water fountain in the moonlight. The greens and lighting are magnificent and masterfully executed. This painting is a masterpiece and worthy of any Museum wall. Oil on canvas Artwork: 21.25 x 29.25 inches (54 x 74.3 cm) Framed: 26.75 X 34.75 Signed lower left: Luce Provenance: Galerie Heim, Paris, 1931; Private collection; Sale: Larsen Art Auctions, Scottsdale, Arizona, September 18, 2019, lot 190; Acquired by the present owner from the above. Literature: D. Bazetoux, Maximilien Luce: catalogue raisonné l'oeuvre peint, volume II, Paris, 1986, no. 2645, p. 603, illustrated. More information about Maximilien Luce, also known as Luce, Maximilien, Luce, Maximillian, . Condition: Relined, professionally cleaned, varnished with Museum Dammar. Excellent condition. Original frame with ware and restorations. Presents beautifully! Maximilien Luce (13 March 1858 – 6 February 1941) was a prolific French Neo-impressionist artist, known for his paintings, illustrations, engravings, and graphic art, and also for his anarchist activism. Starting as an engraver, he then concentrated on painting, first as an Impressionist, then as a Pointillist, and finally returning to Impressionism. Maximilien-Jules-Constant Luce was born on 13 March 1858 in Paris. His parents, of modest means, were Charles-Désiré Luce (1823–1888), a railway clerk, and Louise-Joséphine Dunas (1822–1878). The family lived in the Montparnasse, a working-class district of Paris. Luce attended school at l'Ecole communale, beginning in 1864. In 1872, the fourteen-year-old Luce became an apprentice with wood-engraver Henri-Théophile Hildebrand (1824–1897). During his three-year xylography apprenticeship, he also took night classes in drawing from instructors Truffet and Jules-Ernest Paris (1827–1895). During this period, Luce started painting in oils. He moved with his family to the southern Paris suburb of Montrouge. His art education continued as he attended drawing classes taught by Diogène Maillard (1840–1926) at the Gobelins tapestry factory. Luce began working in the studio of Eugène Froment (1844–1900) in 1876, producing woodcut prints for various publications, including L'Illustration and London's The Graphic. He took additional art courses, at l'Académie Suisse, and also in the studio of portrait painter Carolus-Duran (1837–1917). Through Froment's studio, Luce became friends with Léo Gausson and Émile-Gustave Cavallo-Péduzzi. These three artists spent time around Lagny-sur-Marne creating Impressionist landscapes. Luce spent four years in the military, starting in 1879, serving in Brittany at Guingamp. The next year, he received a promotion to corporal, and he became friends with Alexandre Millerand, who, in 1920, assumed the office of President of France. In 1881 he requested the restoration of his lower rank of soldier, second class. Carolus-Duran used his influence to get a transfer for Luce to Paris barracks. His stint in the military came to a close in 1883. The prevalence of the new zincography printing process rendered xylography nearly obsolete as a profession. When the opportunities for employment as an engraver became scarce, Luce shifted his focus to painting full-time in about 1883. Gausson and Cavallo-Péduzzi introduced Luce in about 1884 to the Divisionist technique developed by Georges Seurat. This influenced Luce to begin painting in the Pointillist style.[4] In contrast to Seurat's detached manner, Luce's paintings were passionate portrayals of contemporary subjects, depicting the "violent effects of light".[5] He moved to Montmartre in 1887. Luce joined the Société des Artistes Indépendants and participated in their third spring exhibition, where Paul Signac purchased one of his pieces, La Toilette. Camille Pissarro and critic Félix Fénéon were also impressed by the seven Luce works displayed in the show.[4] Fénéon characterized Luce as a "coarse, honest man, with a rough and muscular talent".[6] In addition to Pissarro and Signac, he met many of the other Neo-impressionists, including Seurat, Henri-Edmond Cross, Charles Angrand, Armand Guillaumin, Hippolyte Petitjean, Albert Dubois-Pillet, and Pissarro's son Lucien.[4] A New York Times critic declared this Pointillist period to be the pinnacle of Luce's artistic career, singling out the radiant 1895 painting On the Bank of the Seine at Poissy as an example. He described the skillfully executed painting as "a lyrical celebration of nature". With the exception of the years 1915 to 1919, Luce exhibited in every show at Les Indépendants from 1887 until he died in 1941,[4] including a thirty-year retrospective held in 1926.[7] In 1909, he was elected Vice President of the Société des Artistes Indépendants,[8] and was elected President in 1935, following the death of Signac, who had held the post since 1908.[9] However, in 1940 he resigned from the position as a protest against the Vichy regime's laws which would have prohibited Jewish artists from participating in the group.[10] Luce had his first solo exhibition, arranged by Fénéon, in July 1888, exhibiting ten paintings at the La Revue indépendante offices.[1][4] He showed six paintings at the 1889 Les XX exhibition in Brussels. While there, he met Les XX official Octave Maus, as well as Symbolist poet Emile Verhaeren and fellow Neo-impressionist painter Théo van Rysselberghe.[4] Luce's work was also featured in the ninth Les XX exhibition, in 1892. In the spring of 1892 Luce traveled with Pissarro to London. Later that year, he visited Saint-Tropez with Signac, and in the summer of 1893, he went to Brittany. Starting near the early part of the twentieth century, his identification with the Neo-impressionists began to disappear, as he became less active politically, and his artistic style shifted from Neo-impressionism, and he resumed painting in an Impressionist manner. Some of his paintings during this period depicted wounded World War I soldiers arriving from the battlefront to Paris.[6] Luce depicted a diverse range of subjects in his works over a long career. He most frequently created landscapes, but his other works include portraits, still lifes (especially florals), domestic scenes, such as bathers, and images of welders, rolling mill operators, and other laborers. Luce aligned with the Neo-impressionists not only in their artistic techniques, but also in their political philosophy of anarchism. Many of his illustrations were featured in socialist periodicals, notably La Révolte, Jean Grave's magazine which was later called Les Temps nouveaux.[1] Other socialist/anarchist publications which he contributed to include Le Père Peinard,[4] Le Chambard,[11] and La Guerre sociale.[8] On 8 July 1894, Luce, suspected of involvement in the 24 June assassination of President of France Marie François Sadi Carnot, was arrested and was confined to Mazas Prison. He was released forty two days later, on 17 August, following his acquittal at the Procès des trente. He published Mazas, an album consisting of ten lithographs documenting the experiences of himself and other political prisoners incarcerated in Mazas; accompanying the lithographs was text by Jules Vallès.[11] In 1896, while King Alfonso XIII of Spain was visiting Paris, the police detained Luce on the grounds that he was a "dangerous anarchist".[12] Luce's choice of subject matter for his art was often rooted in his political beliefs. Through his paintings, he passionately demonstrated empathy and fellowship with the proletariat. AVANTIQUES is dedicated to providing an exclusive curated collection of Fine Arts, Paintings, Bronzes, Asian treasures, Art Glass and Antiques. Our inventory represents time-tested investment quality items with everlasting decorative beauty. We look forward to your business and appreciate any reasonable offers. All of our curated items are vetted and guaranteed authentic and as described. Avantiques only deals in original antiques and never reproductions. We stand behind our treasures with a full money back return policy if the items are not as described. Please also consider Avantique’s eclectic collection of wonderful fine art paintings with artists such as Anthony Thieme, Emile Albert Gruppe, Alphonse Mucha, Alfred De Breanski, Antoine Blanchard, and Marcel Dyf. We strive to collect the highest-quality paintings in exceptional condition.

Creator:
Maximilien Luce (Artist)
Dimensions:
Height: 26.75 in (67.95 cm)Width: 34.75 in (88.27 cm)Depth: 3 in (7.62 cm)
Style:
Art Nouveau (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Paint,Hand-Painted
Place of Origin:
France
Period:
1900-1909
Date of Manufacture:
1900
Condition:
Additions or alterations made to the original: Relined, cleaned and revarnished. Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Dallas, TX
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU1774226472132

Shop All Maximilien Luce

Maximilien Luce

Maximilien Luce was born in Paris in 1858. In 1876 he apprenticed in the shop of the engraver Eugène Froment (1844–1900), a qualified craftsman and graduate of the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs. There, Luce worked on numerous illustrations for French newspapers and foreign periodicals.

In 1877, Luce left Paris and went to London. When he returned to France in 1879 he was called for military service. It was during his military service that Luce met Charles Emile Carolus-Duran (1837–1917), the famous French painter and sculptor who was an instructor to countless artists. Luce entered Carolus-Duran’s studio, a move that not only provided him with meticulous training as a draftsman but also introduced him to the leading painters of the time. Luce met Camille Pissarro (1830–1903), with whom he became very good friends and who gave Luce much artistic advice. Along with Pissarro, Georges Seurat (1859–1891) and Paul Signac (1863–1935), Luce was one of the founders of the Neo-Impressionist School (i.e., the Pointillists).

Luce joined the Société des Indépendants in 1887 and consistently participated in the avant-garde group’s exhibitions. Though landscapes made up most of his oeuvre, Luce executed some marvelous paintings of people in the Pointillist style, and this social realist aspect differentiated him from many of his fellow Neo-Impressionists. For a period of time, Luce was a strict Pointillist. After 1920, however, Luce started to paint in a freer manner. He accepted the position of President of the Société des Artistes Indépendants in 1935, a role from which he would eventually resign as a statement against the society’s growing posture towards restricting Jewish artists from exhibiting.

Luce made a significant contribution to exporting Neo-Impressionism and maintained strong ties with the Belgian Pointillist Théo van Rysselberghe (1862–1926). An indefatigable artist, he left a sizable amount of work in various mediums and remains a very important figure in French Post-Impressionist art. Maximilien Luce died in 1941.

(Biography provided by Stern Pissarro Gallery)