Lot Essay
Beginning in 1899, Luce produced a series of paintings viewed from the Quai Saint-Michel. These works represent the most ambitious and successful examples of his mature career. Philippe Cazeau writes, "Certain canvases from 1899 to 1900, for example La Seine au pont Saint-Michel, are a happy compromise between divisionism and this form of impressionism." (P. Cazeau, op. cit., p. 108). The present work belongs to the Notre Dame series, begun the previous year, and likely conceived through his friendships with Pissarro and Matisse, with whom he painted with at their studios on the quay. Towards the end of 1899, Luce wrote to his friend Henri-Edmond Cross, "I am working at the moment from a window on the quai Saint-Michel, Notre Dame, [and] the quai des Orfvres and it is harshly beautiful. I am making piles of studies and will try to make use of them for larger canvases" (quoted in B. de Verneilh, in L'Oeil, March 1983, p. 24).