Travaux sur la Seine, au pont des Saints-Pères 1936

Maximilien Luce painted Travaux sur la Seine, au pont des Saints-Pères with oil on canvas, using a pointillist technique of small, distinct dots of color. Up close, it’s almost abstract, a mosaic of earthy greens, grays, and ochres, but step back and the scene emerges: construction on the Seine, near a bridge. Look at the way Luce builds up the surface with paint, those distinct little marks giving texture and depth to the water. You can practically feel the river's movement, its constant flux, as the light catches the crests of the waves. Then there are those towering cranes and the smokestacks belching clouds into the sky. Luce often depicted working-class subjects and industrial landscapes. Here, the industrial setting and color palette is a bit like a less apocalyptic Turner. Both artists used the landscape genre as a means to investigate the changing world, but Luce's canvas presents a more optimistic vision of the city, one filled with labor and progress.