Maximilien Luce

Dieppe – The Artists – Luce, Maximilien

This page forms part of a series of pages dedicated to the many artists who painted in Dieppe. A full list of all the artists with a link to their works can be found at the bottom of this page.

Maximilien Luce
Maximilien Luce

Movement(s): Neo Impressionism

Maximilien Luce (1858 – 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.

His parents, of modest means, 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 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.

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.

Click here to read Luce’s full bio on Wikipedia.

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NOTE: A black box like this one, means that there is an explanation text about today’s situation of the painting above it.
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1922 - Maximilien Luce - The Port of Dieppe
1922 – Maximilien Luce – The Port of Dieppe

TODAY: You can clearly see the arches which all older buildings on the port front still have.

1925 - Maximilien Luce - Dieppe, a Basin
1925 – Maximilien Luce – Dieppe, a Basin
1930 - Maximilien Luce - Boats at Dieppe
1930 – Maximilien Luce – Boats at Dieppe

TODAY: You can clearly see the church on top of the hill. This is the “Eglise Notre-Dame de Bonsecours de Dieppe” that still exists today and can be visited.

1930 - Maximilien Luce - Fishing Boats in the Port of Dieppe
1930 – Maximilien Luce – Fishing Boats in the Port of Dieppe

TODAY: Dieppe still has an important fishing fleet.

1933 - Maximilien Luce - Dieppe, the exit from the port
1933 – Maximilien Luce – Dieppe, the exit from the port
1935 - Maximilien Luce - Dieppe, animated landscape
1935 – Maximilien Luce – Dieppe, animated landscape
1939 - Maximilien Luce - Dieppe, boats at the dock
1939 – Maximilien Luce – Dieppe, boats at the dock
???? - Maximilien Luce - Dieppe, exit from the port at low tide
???? – Maximilien Luce – Dieppe, exit from the port at low tide
???? - Maximilien Luce - Dieppe
???? – Maximilien Luce – Dieppe
???? - Maximilien Luce - The Port of Dieppe
???? – Maximilien Luce – The Port of Dieppe

Pourville-sur-Mer

Pourville is a neighbouring town which lies immediately to the South-West of Dieppe at the sea.

???? - Maximilien Luce - The Cliffs of Pourville
???? – Maximilien Luce – The Cliffs of Pourville

Luce painted many paintings during his lifetime, a lot of them in Normandy. Here are the places he painted mostly in France (links “” to his works will appear below when published):

Dieppe in Normandy was a popular place for artists to come and apply their art. Here is a list, non exhaustive, of the artists that painted in Dieppe.

A link (“⇠”) to the artist’s works will appear when published (a “*” indicates that the artist did not work directly in Dieppe, instead worked in nearby villages):

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