Bord De Seine c. 1922

Maximilien Luce painted this waterside landscape, Bord De Seine, with oil on canvas. Look at the way the pointillist marks are laid down, all those little dots of color – it’s like he's building the image out of pure sensation, color by color. Up close, you can really see how Luce makes the canvas shimmer, you can see the different layers of paint and how he captures the light dancing on the water. Notice the subtle changes, like the way the reflected buildings break up as they hit the water. I love how the whole scene is full of these little moments of visual poetry. Luce was part of this whole neo-impressionist scene, hanging out with Seurat and Signac. They were all about breaking down color and light, but I think Luce brings something extra – a kind of groundedness that you see in someone like Courbet. It is this mixing of ideas and ways of seeing that makes art so fascinating, don’t you think?