L’Inondation à Longchamp 1912

This landscape of Longchamp, by Maximilien Luce, looks as though it has been rapidly built up with brushstrokes of light, color, and feeling. I can imagine Luce standing en plein air, trying to record a fleeting experience of an overcast day in the countryside. It is a mostly muted palette, the sky and ground are painted with layered greys and sandy yellows. Yet there are subtle, rich highlights of burnt orange and green throughout. There is the sense of an artist trying to grasp at something very definite, but equally aware of how hard it is to stop the world changing. I love the contrast between the way the trees are defined against the sketchy, ill-defined figures, walking their dogs and trying to keep warm. Luce's painting here makes me think of Courbet, or even Pissarro, other artists committed to capturing ordinary life. And what a beautiful thing it is to witness, this passing of influence and inspiration from one artist to the next.