Maximilien Luce, French 1848-1941- Le repos du labour, Méréville, 1898; oil on board, signed and dated 98 lower right, titled and..

Maximilien Luce, French 1848-1941- Le repos du labour, Méréville, 1898; oil on board, signed and dated 98 lower right, titled and dated 1898 on the reverse, 33x51cm Provenance: Atelier of the artist ; Collection of Frédéric Luce; Private Collection, Paris; Beaussant-Lefevre SARL, Paris, 12 April 2019, lot 167; Private Collection, London Note:This artwork is by the French artist Maximilien Luce, an important figure in the Neo-Impressionist movement. Luce trained in a range of practices, including woodcut engravings, before eventually focusing on oil painting. Luce was connected with a number of significant figures in the artistic landscape of contemporary France, training under Carolus-Duran, and becoming friends with artists such as Émile-Gustave Cavallo-Péduzzi and Léo Gausson. His work gained a number of supporters amongst his fellow artists, including Paul Signac, Félix Fénéon, and Camille Pissarro. Much of Luce’s work exhibits many of the characteristics of Pointillism, with Luce’s thinking having been heavily influenced by the Divisionist colour theories of Georges Seurat. Luce’s work was exhibited during his lifetime and after his death. Seven of his works were exhibited at the third Salon des Indépendents in the late nineteenth century, whilst a memorial exhibition of his work was held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in 1941. His work is held in a number of internationally significant collections, including the Chicago Art Institute, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.