Maximilien Luce (1858-1941) - Charcoal and black chalk drawing - Horse

Maximilien Luce (1858-1941) Charcoal, black chalk, and blue pencil drawing on paper. Draft horse. Artist's studio sale stamp lower right. Giltwood frame under glass. Dimensions with frame: 23.3 X 28.5 cm. Dimensions without frame: 9 X 14.5 cm. Very good condition. *Luce, Neo-Impressionist painter. Maximilien Luce's earliest known paintings date from 1876. He chose to depict the daily life of those around him and the landscapes familiar to him. In 1887, he exhibited for the first time at the Salon des Indépendants. It was there that he had the decisive encounter with Georges Seurat, Camille Pissarro, and Paul Signac, who bought one of his paintings, La Toilette (The Toilet). Luce then began practicing the new technique of tonal division. But, far from adopting Seurat's detached gaze, he depicted the contemporary world with passion. He found in the laws of tonal contrast a way to give more impact to color, which suited his temperament. As for the discipline required by the divided brushstroke, it fostered the expression of an unexpected chromatic refinement in the working-class world. Some of his landscapes painted in Paris, Saint-Tropez, Brittany, Normandy, or London are examples of a remarkably synthetic art. Luce always showed a predilection for nocturnes and twilights, and appreciated the effects of the London fog. He was also a great portraitist, reserving his talents for his friends. The very sensitive profile of the young Signac, bent over his work in progress; the deliberate stiffness of the critic Félix Fénéon; The friendly attention of Henri-Edmond Cross, surrounded by his canvases and brushes. The Lights of the Black Country. In 1895, during a stay in Brussels, Luce visited Charleroi and discovered the Borinage, then undergoing rapid industrial expansion. Fascinated by this world, he returned the following year and stayed again in the Sambre Valley.