This page forms part of a series of pages dedicated to the many artists who worked in Honfleur. A full list of all the artists with a link to their works can be found at the bottom of this page.
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.
NOTE: Click on any image below for a bigger version (no new window will open).
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):
- Bourgogne-Franche-Comte (Burgundy)
- Auxerre
- Bessy-sur-Cure
- Cussy-les-Forges
- Vermenton
- Brittany
- Camaret-sur-Mer
- Kermouster
- Lezardrieux
- Saint-Malo
- Saint-Servan
- Normandy
- Dieppe (and surroundings) ⇠
- Gisors
- Honfleur ⇠
- Le Havre ⇠
- Le Treport
- Les Andelys
- Rouen
- Vernon
- Pays de la Loire
- Angers
- Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur
- Saint-Tropez
Honfleur was (and is) a very picturesque town, so it saw many artists capturing the beauty of this very scenic town. The reason it has so many tourists is obvious…. it’s very pretty. Here are some of the artists that have come to apply their art in the town (a link, symbolized by a “⇠“, to the artist’s works will appear when published. A “*” indicates that the artist did not work directly in Honfleur but instead worked outside of Honfleur in a nearby town).
- 🇺🇸 Boggs, Frank Myers ⇠
- 🇷🇺 Bogolyubov, Alexey (Alexei) ⇠
- 🇬🇧 Bonington, Richard Parkes ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Boudin, Eugene-Louis ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Braque, Georges ⇠
- 🇬🇧 Bruce, Mary Louisa, Countess of Elgin and Kincardine ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Bruelle, Gaston ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Burel, Henry E. ⇠
- 🇬🇧 Burgess Jr, John ⇠
- 🇺🇸 Butler, Theodore Earl ⇠
- 🇬🇧 Callow, William ⇠
- 🇬🇧 Cooke, Edward William ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Corot, Jean-Baptiste Camille ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Courbet, Gustave ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Cyr, Georges Albert ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Daubigny, Charles-Francois ⇠
- 🇫🇷 de Saint-Delis, Henri ⇠
- 🇫🇷 de Saint-Delis, Rene ⇠
- 🇬🇧 Dibdin, Thomas Colman ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Dubourg, Louis-Alexandre ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Dufy, Jean ⇠
- 🇮🇪 Dunlop, Ronald Ossory ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Friesz, Othon ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Garneray, Ambroise Louis ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Gernez, Paul-Elie ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Goeneutte, Norbert ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Gudin, Theodore ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Guerard, Henri ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Hervier, Louis Adolphe ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Huet, Paul ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Isabey, Eugene ⇠
- 🇳🇱 Jongkind, Johan ⇠
- 🇬🇧 Kay, James ⇠
- 🇳🇱 Kickert, Conrad Theodore ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Le Gray, Gustave ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Le Sidaner, Henri ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Lebourg, Albert ⇠
- 🇬🇧 Lee-Hankey, William ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Leprince, Auguste-Xavier ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Luce, Maximilien ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Maclet, Elisee ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Madelain, Gustave ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Manzana-Pissarro, Georges Henri ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Marquet, Albert ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Mathon, Emile Louis ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Monet, Claude ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Mozin, Charles Louis ⇠
- 🇺🇸 Norton, William Edward ⇠
- 🇬🇧 Parrott, William ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Pecrus, Charles Francois ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Petitjean, Edmond Marie ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Roullet, Gaston ⇠
- 🇬🇧 Schafer, Henry Thomas ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Seurat, Georges ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Signac, Paul ⇠
- 🇬🇧 Stanfield, Clarkson Frederick ⇠
- 🇧🇪 Stevens, Alfred ⇠
- 🇳🇱 Ten Cate, Siebe Johannes ⇠
- 🇧🇪 Timmermans, Louis-Etienne ⇠
- 🇫🇷 Truffaut, Fernand-Fortune ⇠
- 🇬🇧 Turner, William ⇠
- 🇨🇭 Vallotton, Felix ⇠
- 🇬🇧 Wadsworth, Edward ⇠
- 🇬🇧 Webb, James ⇠
NOTE: You can subscribe to our new articles by entering your email address in the box on the right column (or at the very bottom of this article) and clicking on the button “Subscribe”.
You will need to check your incoming emails and validate your subscription. If you can’t see an email from us, check your Spam folder. Without validating your email address, you will not get notifications from us. WE WILL NEVER GIVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESSES TO ANYONE!
Related Posts
- 87
Louis-Etienne Timmermans (1846 - 1910) was a Belgian painter, specialized in marine paintings and landscapes. He was a pupil of the Academie de Bruxelles and the Ecole des Beaux Arts de Paris. Timmermans worked mostly in France, painting small coastal harbours, which he painted with a precise realism. He died… - 87
Marie Anatole Gaston Roullet (1847 - 1925), is a French painter and illustrator, appointed official painter of the Colonies and the Navy in 1885. Roullet was a pupil of Jules Noel, whose daughter, Marie-Caroline, he married in 1874. Appointed painter to the Navy and the departments of the Colonies, Roullet… - 87
Russian artist Alexey (Alexei) Bogolyubov painted all over the world, but many of his works were centered along the Normandy coastlines. Here are his works for Honfleur. - 87
James Webb was a British painter specialising in marine views and landscapes. He was born in a family of artists. His father Archibald Webb and his brother Byron Webb were also noted painters. He lived all his life in Chelsea, London. Here are his works for Honfleur, Normandy. - 87
Paul Huet was a French painter and printmaker born in Paris. He met the English painter Richard Parkes Bonington. Bonington's example influenced Huet to reject neoclassicism and instead paint landscapes based on close observation of nature. Huet's works, which include oil paintings, watercolors, etchings, and lithographs, are Romantic in feeling.…