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Lot Essay
In Méricourt, Baigneurs et plongeurs, Maximilien Luce depicts women, men and children enjoying the shores of the river Seine on a warm sunny day, by the town of Méricourt, to the north-west of Paris, where the artist would often paint. Through this scene, Luce provides his own interpretation of this iconic 19th century subject-matter of bathers, following the footsteps of Paul Cezanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Paul Signac and above all, Georges Seurat. Indeed, the composition of the painting closely resembles Seurat’s Une Baignade, Asnières, painted in 1884 and now in London’s National Gallery. Inspired by the father of Neo-Impressionism, Luce adds his own playful dynamism and presents a dreamy image, evoking the joys of summertime and the calmness of nature. In this large-scale composition, Luce shows each figure in action, narrating the stories of the people of Paris’ suburbs, while challenging the meditative seriousness of Seurat’s figures.
Although Luce was closely associated to the Neo-Impressionists and Pointillists throughout his life, this work was produced in 1936, five years before the artist’s death. At the turn of the century, Luce had already begun to move away from the intellectual theories of such movements, reaching more freedom in a style that was influenced to a certain extent by Monet, whom he occasionally visited in the close-by Giverny.
As such, Luce plays here with a wide palette of colours, the strengths of his brushstrokes and his taste for a balanced classical composition free from solemnity. The intensity of his painting evokes the summer heat, as his bathers disrobe and leap into the Seine to cool themselves. In the present painting, Luce showcases a bright and harmonious association of colours, seen for example in the subtle nuances of the river’s blues. The serenity of the picture is also a direct reflection of the artist’s later years, which, in comparison to the anarchism of his youth, he lived out in peaceful bliss in his native Paris.
Although Luce was closely associated to the Neo-Impressionists and Pointillists throughout his life, this work was produced in 1936, five years before the artist’s death. At the turn of the century, Luce had already begun to move away from the intellectual theories of such movements, reaching more freedom in a style that was influenced to a certain extent by Monet, whom he occasionally visited in the close-by Giverny.
As such, Luce plays here with a wide palette of colours, the strengths of his brushstrokes and his taste for a balanced classical composition free from solemnity. The intensity of his painting evokes the summer heat, as his bathers disrobe and leap into the Seine to cool themselves. In the present painting, Luce showcases a bright and harmonious association of colours, seen for example in the subtle nuances of the river’s blues. The serenity of the picture is also a direct reflection of the artist’s later years, which, in comparison to the anarchism of his youth, he lived out in peaceful bliss in his native Paris.