Maximilien Luce was born in 1858 in Paris where he was apprenticed to the wood engraver, Henri Hildebrand from 1872 to 1876. Luce worked briefly for Eugene Froment as an engraver, and in 1877 he entered the studio of Charles Carolus-Duran. Following a brief period of military service he concentrated on painting, sharing his time between the ateliers of Carolus-Duran, Froment and Auguste Lançon. In 1887 Luce joined the Société des Artistes Indépendants whose members included Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Camille Pissarro and other artists of the Neo-Impressionists movement. Luce embraced their Pointillist theories of color and composition and painted in this manner from 1888 to 1891. He exhibited at the Salons des Artistes Indépendants for over fifty years and was elected President of the Société in 1935. Luce's art cannot be separated from his background and character. Of working-class parentage, he was deeply concerned with the plight of the common laborer. Like most of the Neo-Impressionists he held anarchist beliefs and was actually imprisoned in 1894 for six weeks following the assassination of the French President, Sadi Carnot. Throughout his career Luce continually devoted canvases to the portrayal of the contemporary urban-industrial scene. His street views of Paris as well as his industrial landscapes of Belgium's "Pays noir" were favorite themes. Luce's sensitivity is discovered in his numerous landscapes, especially those of the Seine valley at Herblay and at Rolleboise, a village near Mantes where he bought a house in his later years. From the mechanical technique and rigorous formulas of Neo-Impressionism Luce's style gradually evolved to a more naturalistic representation. His later paintings are closer to Impressionism. Luce produced a large body of work, more than any other of the Neo-Impressionists.