The poilus were the foot soliders conscripted by the French government to fight in World War I. Then imagine that he decided to consecrate the force of his talent and energy to more depictions of the poor sap, the working stiff, the pour conscript sacrificed as cannon fodder in a wasteful war, and the social movements championing them.
Imagine that his brilliant palette became more dense, retaining the sense of color values he learned from Camille Corot, the precision he picked up from Georges Seurat, and his native curiosity, then augmenting them with the lessons of the Fauves, of late Claude Monet and even Pierre Bonnard.
Imagine, now, that you could see the living proof. Portrait of Maximilien Luce. Silver print, 14 x 8 cm. While many conscientious private collectors readily lend their work to public expositions, nothing obligates them to do so.
Once a work of art has been snapped up at auction by a private collector, nothing guarantees its continued public accessibility β¦. A brief biographical re-cap is perhaps in order to deepen your appreciation of the work represented here: Born in the 6th arrondissement of Paris in , Luce was deeply marked by the Versailles repression of the Paris Commune in , installing himself in in Montmartre, the foundry of the revolt, taking a room at 6 rue Cortot β the same address where a certain Erik Satie would move in Echoing Gustave Courbet during his own imprisonment following the downfall of the Paris Commune, Luce made a series of etchings chronicling his imprisonment.
Such as the example featured above. In he was elected president of the Society of Independent Artists. Luce died in in his studio on the rue de Seine β not yet deported. But what better milieu to house and showcase the works of a conscious artist like Luce, with his concern for social turpitudes and answer of darkness with light? Luce in studio: Maximilien Luce in his studio.
