Maximilian Luce was born in Paris in 1858. Luce was close friends with such painters as Camille Pissarro, Georges Seurat, Theo Van Rysselberghe, and Louis Valtat. Together with Seurat and Signac, one of the founders of the Neoimpressionist school, Luce began a movement which based itself on the scientific study of light and the analysis of the prismatic effect of colors. For some years, Maximilian Luce worked strictly by the ideas of pointillism, though he later changed his technique in favor of a less formal painting style. Landscapes, city scenes, and depictions of working people define the contents of Luce's paintings. Maximilian Luce died in 1941.