Maximilien Luce

Honfleur – The Artists – Luce, Maximilien

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.

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.

NOTE: Click on any image below for a bigger version (no new window will open).

1928 - Maximilien Luce - Honfleur, The big basin (Grand Bassin)
1928 – Maximilien Luce – Honfleur, The big basin (Grand Bassin)
1928 - Maximilien Luce - Honfleur
1928 – Maximilien Luce – Honfleur
1928 - Maximilien Luce - View of the port of Honfleur
1928 – Maximilien Luce – View of the port of Honfleur
1929 - Maximilien Luce - Boats around Honfleur
1929 – Maximilien Luce – Boats around Honfleur
1929 - Maximilien Luce - Honfleur, Port Entry
1929 – Maximilien Luce – Honfleur, Port Entry
1929 - Maximilien Luce - Honfleur, sailboats and tugboats
1929 – Maximilien Luce – Honfleur, sailboats and tugboats
1929 - Maximilien Luce - Honfleur, tugboat at the quay
1929 – Maximilien Luce – Honfleur, tugboat at the quay
1929 - Maximilien Luce - Honfleur
1929 – Maximilien Luce – Honfleur
1929 - Maximilien Luce - Sailboats at Honfleur
1929 – Maximilien Luce – Sailboats at Honfleur
1929 - Maximilien Luce - Sunset Honfleur
1929 – Maximilien Luce – Sunset Honfleur
1930 - Maximilien Luce - Honfleur, Port Entry
1930 – Maximilien Luce – Honfleur, Port Entry
1930 - Maximilien Luce - Honfleur, tug and sailboats
1930 – Maximilien Luce – Honfleur, tug and sailboats
1933 - Maximilien Luce - Honfleur, The Lighthouse And The Jetty
1933 – Maximilien Luce – Honfleur, The Lighthouse And The Jetty
1933 - Maximilien Luce - Honfleur
1933 – Maximilien Luce – Honfleur
1933 - Maximilien Luce - The return from fishing, Honfleur
1933 – Maximilien Luce – The return from fishing, Honfleur
1935 - Maximilien Luce - Honfleur, fishermen and children on the wharf
1935 – Maximilien Luce – Honfleur, fishermen and children on the wharf
1935 - Maximilien Luce - Tug boat off Honfleur
1935 – Maximilien Luce – Tug boat off Honfleur
1937 - Maximilien Luce - Honfleur, on the quay
1937 – Maximilien Luce – Honfleur, on the quay
1937 - Maximilien Luce - Honfleur, the beach
1937 – Maximilien Luce – Honfleur, the beach
1939 - Maximilien Luce - Honfleur, the channel at low tide
1939 – Maximilien Luce – Honfleur, the channel at low tide
???? - Maximilien Luce - Honfleur
???? – Maximilien Luce – Honfleur
???? - Maximilien Luce - Honfleur
???? – Maximilien Luce – Honfleur
???? - Maximilien Luce - Honfleur
???? – Maximilien Luce – Honfleur
???? - Maximilien Luce - Honfleur, Fishermen on the Port
???? – Maximilien Luce – Honfleur, Fishermen on the Port
???? - Maximilien Luce - House in Honfleur
???? – Maximilien Luce – House in Honfleur
???? - Maximilien Luce - Sailboat in Honfleur
???? – Maximilien Luce – Sailboat in Honfleur
???? - Maximilien Luce - Sailboats in Honfleur
???? – Maximilien Luce – Sailboats in Honfleur
???? - Maximilien Luce - Seascape at Honfleur
???? – Maximilien Luce – Seascape at Honfleur
???? - Maximilien Luce - Steamboat at the port of Honfleur
???? – Maximilien Luce – Steamboat at the port of Honfleur
???? - Maximilien Luce - The waves in Honfleur
???? – Maximilien Luce – The waves in Honfleur

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):

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).

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