Au bord de la rivière

Au bord de la rivière (By the Riverside) by Maximilien Luce from 1903, held in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, extends his sustained practice of painting Norman rivers and their banks — subjects that combined his Post-Impressionist technique with an anarchist's appreciation for working landscapes and ordinary outdoor life. Luce frequently depicted figures by rivers — fishermen, bathers, workers — alongside pure landscape views of water and bank. A scene by the riverside, with its suggestions of leisure, labor, and the continuous presence of moving water, gave him the opportunity to bring human activity into his favored natural setting. This work likely depicts one of his familiar Norman river locations.

Luce applies his evolved Post-Divisionist technique to the river scene, using interlocking strokes that are looser than strict Seurat-method pointillism but retain the chromatic vibrancy of the divisionist approach. The reflective river surface is rendered through horizontal strokes that contrast with the more varied marks of the vegetation.