Les Maçons 1929

Maximilien Luce painted "Les Maçons" with oils, using a high viewpoint, but when? What was he thinking? I am drawn to the physicality here – the rough, broken touches, the texture of the brickwork. It makes me feel like I’m standing right there on that rooftop with the workers. You can almost smell the mortar, right? Look at the guy pulling on the rope, his face obscured, but the tension in his body is so palpable, so present, that it communicates the weight of the materials and the work being done. There’s a sort of muscular poetry to the scene. It reminds me of Courbet's stonebreakers. You know, Luce was part of this whole lineage of artists interested in depicting everyday life, and imbuing it with a sense of dignity. Artists are always in conversation with each other, building on the ideas of the past, just like these guys are building a roof. Painting allows for this constant reimagining, rebuilding, and reinterpretation.