Factory in the Moonlight
Luce, Maximilien
París, 1858 - 1941
Factory in the Moonlight, 1898
Signed & dated lower right: ''Luce 98''.
Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection
Location: Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid
Oil on canvas
55,9 x 46 cm
CTB.1996.9
Artwork history
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Christie’s Auctions, London, February 25, 1981, lot 28
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Martin & Debesnois, Versailles, June 1, 1980, lot 64
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Sotheby’s Auctions, New York, May 2, 1996, lot 133
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Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection
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-Bouin-Luce, Jean y Bazetoux, Denise: Maximilien Luce. Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint. París, Éditions JBL, 1986 , vol. 2, n. 1067, p. 265, lám. p. 266 (listed as “Le Clair de Lune”)
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-De Canaletto a Kandinsky. Obras maestras de la colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza. Addenda. Llorens Serra, Tomàs (ed.). [Exhib. Cat. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza]. Madrid, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, 1996, n. 100, p. 10. [Sheet by Ronald Pickvance]
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-Sotheby’s (aut. corp.): Impressionist and modern art, part II. [Auction Cat.]. New York, May 2, 1996, n. 133, lám.
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-From Zurbaran to Picasso. Masterpieces from the Collection of Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Shanghai, Shanghai Museum; Pekín, China National Art Gallery [Exhib. Cat.], 1996, p. 118.
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-Capolavori dalla Collezione di Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza: 60º anniversario dell’apertura della Pinacotecca di Villa Favorita, Lugano, Villa Favorita [Exhib. Cat.], 1997, n. 92, p. 238.
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-Del vedutismo a las primeras vanguardias. Obras maestras de la Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Exhib. Cat.], 1997, n. 32, p. 128.
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-Masterworks from the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Tokio, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum; Takaoka, Takaoka Art Museum; Nagoya, Matsuzaka Art Museum; Sendai, Miyagi Museum of Art [Exhib. Cat.], 1998, n. 71, p. 160.
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-Del impresionismo a la vanguardia en la Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Barcelona, Centre Cultural Caixa Catalunya [Exhib. Cat.], 1999, p. 114.
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-Del impresionismo a la vanguardia en la Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, México, DF, Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes [Exhib. Cat.], 2000, p. 102.
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-La Révolte de la couleur. De l’impressionnisme aux Avant-gardes. Chefs-d’oeuvre de la Collection Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Bruselas, Musée d’Ixelles [Exhib. Cat.], 2000, n. 5, p. 32.
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-Il trionfo del colore. Collezione Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza. Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse, Kandinsky, Roma, Palazzo Ruspoli [Exhib. Cat.], 2002, p. 114.
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-Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza. Arnaldo, Javier (ed.). 2 vols. Madrid, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2004, vol. 2, p. 162, lám. p. 163 [Sheet by Ronald Pickvance].
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-Neoimpresionismo. La eclosión de la modernidad. Lemoine, Serge [et al.]. [Exhib. Cat.]. Madrid, Fundación MAPFRE, 2007, p. 218, lám. p. 219 [Sheet by Dominique Lobstein]
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-Maximililien Luce. Les Travaux et les Jours, Saint-Tropez, Musée de L’Annonciade [Exhib. Cat.], pp. 104 (detail), 2008, 62 y 63 (lám.) .
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-Henri-Edmond Cross et le néo-impressionisme. De Seurat à Matisse, París, Musée Marmottan Monet; Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Musée départemental Matisse [Exhib. Cat.], 2011, n. 41, p. 83, lám.
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-Rusiñol, Monet, Gauguin, Sunyer. El paisaje en la Colección Carmen Thyssen, Gerona, CaixaForum; Tarragona, CaixaForum; Lérida, CaixaForum, [Exhib. Cat.], 2012, n. 21, p. 88, lám. p. 89. (Gerona & Tarragona).
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-Courbet, Van Gogh, Monet, Léger. Del paisaje naturalista a las vanguardias en la Colección Carmen Thyssen, Málaga, Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga [Exhib. Cat.], 2013, n. 17, p. 84, lám. p. 85.
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-Barcelona, París, New York. D´Urgell a O´Keeffe. Col.lecció Carmen Thyssen. Espai Carmen Thyssen, Sant Feliu de Guixols [Exhib. Cat.], 2015. pp. 32.
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-Impressionism in the Age of Industry: Monet, Pissarro and More. AGO, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Edited by Caroline Shields, DelMonico Books, Canada, 2019. [Exhib. Cat. Art Gallery of Ontario].p. 168 y 239.
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-Colección Carmen Thyssen. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. Ed. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2024. P. 252-253 [Sheet by Ronald Pickvance]
Expert report
Introduced by Pissarro to the neo-Impressionists Seurat, Signac and Cross in 1887, Luce quickly became a convinced exponent of the “new” style that aimed to apply scientific principles of colour and light to painting. From the beginning, virtually all the members of the group had strong political beliefs, and Luce himself was certainly a fervent anarchist as well as a committed Pointillist. Even after Seurat’s premature death at the age of 31 in 1891, Luce continued to paint in an adapted Pointillist style that Pissarro had rejected by 1889.
Of all the neo-Impressionists, Luce had the most tangible contacts with the Belgian group of Les XX. As well as exhibiting with them in Brussels, he became particularly friendly with the poet Émile Verhaeren and the artist Theo van Rysselberghe. And it was largely at their suggestion that Luce chose to visit the heavily industrialised area of Charleroi in 1895-and again in 1897 and 1898. A large body of work exists depicting foundries, steel-works, furnaces, and factory chimneys in and around Charleroi. As a committed and active anarchist, Luce felt strong sympathies with the Belgian workers. Several paintings depict them at work in near-purgatorial conditions. Other paintings by contrast are almost “still-life” presentations of this industrialised landscape, without figures. And clearly, night-scenes-or moonlight scenes-enabled Luce to present a dramatic heightening of these “still-life” buildings by exploiting the neo-Impressionist discoveries of light and colour.
Thus, the present painting, dated 1898, hinges on these two aspects: the unpeopled factory landscape on the one hand and the exploration of the neo-Impressionist brushstroke in registering effects of moonlit light and colour on the other.
After his prolonged series of industrial subject-matter around Charleroi from 1895 to 1898, Luce rarely returned to such themes after 1900.
Ronald Pickvance