Maximilien Luce was born to a working-class Parisian family on March 13, 1828. Despite his modest beginnings, Luce went on to become one of the founders of the Neo-Impressionist movement along with Camille Pissarro, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. The Neo-Impressionists sought to improve upon the Impressionist style with a scientific method of painting called Pointillism.

His initial training was as a wood carver at the Ecole des Arts décoratifs.  In 1872, he began to study engraving and took evening courses to enrich his knowledge.  In 1876 he entered the shop of the engraver Eugène Froment (1844-1900), with whom he traveled to London in 1877. After his return to Paris in 1879 Luce began his 4-year military service. During his service and later, up to 1885, he studied at the Académie Suisse and the studio of Carolus-Duran (1837-1917) at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In his painting, he became influenced by Impressionism. In the 1880s he met and established friendly contacts with many Parisian painters, including Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Georges Seurat (1859-1891) and Paul Signac (1863-1935), with whom he became one of the aforementioned founders of Neo-Impressionism (Pointillism).

Around 1900, however, Luce moved away from the pointillist technique of painting small dots of pure color, in favor of more expressive and spontaneous strokes. Not only did the artist distinguish himself from his colleagues with an instinctual, less rigid technique but also by his choice of subject matter.

Until 1904 Luce lived in Montmartre, the streets of which he liked to paint. During 1904-1924, he lived in Auteuil, then moved back to Paris.   Besides social realist street scenes, factories and wharfs with fisherman and workers, he painted numerous peaceful scenes of leisure and picturesque landscapes and seascapes on his travels through the Etampes, Normandy and Brittany. His oil paintings often illustrate his mastery of light and color, to capture “the calm of nature and gentleness of things” in the late 19th and early 20th century French countryside. During the First World War he also painted war scenes, wounded and homecoming soldiers.

In 1934, Maximilien Luce was elected President of the Société des Artistes Indépendants after Signac’s retirement, but soon resigned in a protest against society's policy to restrict the admission of Jewish artists.

Maximilien Luce died in Paris in 1941. He remains an important artist in Pointillism and social realism.

Luce’s works are featured in permanent collections of many internationally renowned museums including, among others, the Musée D’Orsay in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, N.Y., the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario, and the Legion of Honor museum in San Francisco, California.

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