Maximilien LUCE

Maximlien Luce (1858-1941) was a prolific post-impressionist painter-engraver.  He left behind hundreds, if not thousands of oil paintings, with subjects as diverse as cityscapes, landscapes, images of labor and leisure, views of waterways and seascapes, as well as portraits, and assorted other images.  As a printmaker he can be remembered both for his etchings, in which is sometimes also liked to add touches of drypoint, as well as for his lithographs, both in color and in black and white.  He created approximately 15 intaglio prints, about 30 monochromatic lithographs (plus a few sets of lithographic illustrations), and about 10 color lithographs.  The latter is what he is mostly known for by print collectors.  These color compositions are painterly and very reminiscent of his oil paintings.  Much has been made or Luce’s anarchist sympathies.  His art, however, is mostly quiet, bright and contemplative.