The River Sambre in Charleroi 1896

Maximilien Luce painted this artwork with oil on canvas. The dominant sensation is one of a nocturnal industrial scene, rendered with a tapestry of short brushstrokes. Luce's pointillist technique, breaking down the image into small points of color, is not just a method of optical mixing but also a way of structuring the entire composition. The river, with its reflections, acts as a visual hinge, connecting the dark, solid forms of the buildings above with their fragmented counterparts below. The bridge, spanning the river, creates a series of arches that echo the industrial forms, providing a rhythmic structure that guides the viewer's eye. These flickering lights reflected in the water challenge fixed meanings, suggesting a world in flux, where solid structures dissolve into shimmering illusions. It captures a moment where the industrial and the natural, the solid and the liquid, meet and merge. The structure of the painting, through its broken color and reflected forms, invites us to see beyond the surface, to consider the unstable nature of reality itself.