Maximillian luce biography

Neo-impressionist and anarchist

At the age of 14, Maximilien Luce began his apprenticeship with a wood engraver and took evening courses in a drawing school. Having become an engraver, he trained as a painter at the Swiss Academy and in the famous Carolus-Duran’s studio.

In , Luce exhibited at the Salon de la Société des artistes indépendants and met the neo-impressionists Camille Pissarro, George Seurat and Paul Signac.

He then adopted the division of tones and began using rare chromatic harmonies in his representations of the working world and his often nocturnal landscapes. From , he gradually renounced neo-impressionism and turned to a freer, almost fauve, treatment of colour.

After the assassination of President Sadi Carnot in , Luce was arrested because of his anarchist beliefs, that he shared with all of his Neo-Impressionist.

In prison, he found himself with the art critic Félix Fénéon, accused in the Trial of the Thirty. He was released on August 17 for lack of serious e