Maximilien Luce

Sale: Sotheby's, London, 4th April 1990, lot 377
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

For a preliminary study for this work in pastel and oil of the same date see Jean Bouin-Luce and Denise Bazetoux, Maximilien Luce, Catalogue de l’œuvre peint, Paris, 1986, no. 1461.

Luce first visited the Netherlands in 1907 when he stayed in Rotterdam with his friend Kees van Dongen. The present work is one of a number of port views executed there, investigating the social effects of industrial modernity. Characteristically, this social commentary is expressed through a complex painterly technique.

One of the founding members of Neo-Impressionism along with Seurat and Signac, Luce's post-1900 oeuvre evinces a mature, individual style with thicker brushstrokes and an intuitive sense of colour. The exquisite representation of light on water became his signature motif, as Le Port de Rotterdam illustrates.