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Delannoy – Maximilien Luce Painting

2.800,00 €

Aristide Delannoy
(1874 Béthune – 1911 Paris)

MAXIMILIEN LUCE PAINTING

Pencil on paper, 28.5 x 23 cm, signed lower left: A. Delannoy, lower right: collector’s stamp Edouard Bouin

The drawing served as a template for the cover of Les Hommes du jour, No. 60, Paris, 13 March 1909.

Provenance:
Edouard Bouin collection (not in Lugt); Tajan, Paris, 19 May 2009, lot 66

Literature:
Jean Bouin-Luce and Denise Bazetoux, Maximilien Luce, catalogue de l’œuvre peint, vol. I, Édition JBL, Paris, 1986, p. 46 (cover image of Les Hommes du jour, no. 60, 13 March 1909, Paris, s.n., 1909)

In profile, leaning forward slightly, his gaze fixed intently on his subject and a brush loosely held in his hand, this is how Maximilien Luce appears in Aristide Delannoy’s portrait for the cover of the political satire magazine Les Hommes du Jour from 1909. He is depicted painting en plein air – at least, that is what his hat suggests – and it is easy to imagine him filling the canvas with fine, short impressionistic brushstrokes. When the portrait was painted, he was 35 years old and already a very successful and sought-after painter. This was no mean feat for the son of a labourer who could not afford to attend art school!
Despite his success, Luce never forgot his origins. He was a staunch anarchist and politically active, which even led to a brief imprisonment in 1894. His oeuvre contains an above-average number of images of workers and anti-war paintings, which made it difficult for him to gain acceptance among the Impressionists and their collectors. Nevertheless, he painted them out of political conviction. This connected him with Aristide Delannoy, who was his friend and political ally. Delannoy died of tuberculosis in 1911 at the age of 37, after being sentenced to three years in prison for a political caricature for Les Hommes du Jour. Luce fought against such injustices throughout his life. How easily he could have suffered a similar fate when he was imprisoned in 1894. He was fortunate. In 1909, when Delannoy painted his portrait, he was elected vice-president of the Société des Artistes Indépendants and subsequently enjoyed a busy but fulfilling and successful life as a painter. He lived to the age of 83.