Les Maçons 1929

Maximilien Luce made 'Les Maçons' with oil on canvas, and it feels like he really enjoyed the hands-on process of painting. The brushstrokes are visible and free, like you can see him building up the image, layer by layer. There’s something beautiful about how the materiality of the paint mimics the gritty reality of construction work. The thick, opaque strokes create a tangible sense of texture, almost like the rough surface of a brick wall. Look closely at the worker in the foreground, how the light catches the curve of his back, it feels like Luce is using paint to show the weight and the effort of labour. Luce was part of the Neo-Impressionist movement, and you can see that influence here, but there’s something about the way he depicts the everyday lives of working people that sets him apart; almost like Courbet. Ultimately, this painting feels like an invitation to appreciate the beauty in the ordinary, and to see art as an ongoing conversation about how we experience the world.