Painter and printmaker · French
Around Giverny
Maximilien Luce
A Neo-Impressionist settled at Rolleboise, he was a frequent visitor to Monet, who lived nearby.
- Dates1858 — 1941
- NationalityFrench
- DisciplinePainter and printmaker
- Place of birthParis, France
Biography
Apprenticed to a wood engraver at fourteen, he then studied painting at the Académie Suisse and in Carolus-Duran’s studio. In 1887 he exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants, where he met Camille Pissarro, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, and took up Divisionism, which he abandoned around 1897 for freer colour. An anarchist, he was imprisoned in 1894 during the Trial of the Thirty, then released for lack of evidence. His subjects range from industrial scenes of the Borinage to the quiet Seine banks of Rolleboise.
Giverny
He discovered Rolleboise in 1917 and bought a property there in 1920. From there, according to the musée des impressionnismes Giverny, he frequently visited Claude Monet at nearby Giverny, taking up a calmer manner that returned to Impressionist themes. His link with the village is therefore real but late: it formed after the Great War, once the American colony had dispersed.
Relation with the Hôtel Baudy
No source connects him to the Hôtel Baudy, and the chronology makes it unlikely: his visits to Giverny began only after 1917.
Principal works
Key points
- 1858Born — Paris, France
- GivernyVisits to Monet from 1917-1920
- 1941Died