The Île à bois, Kermouster, Lézardrieux, Maximilien Luce
Luce spent the summer of 1914 at Kermouster near Lézardrieux in Brittany, where he painted landscapes. This painting, a product of that summer, conveys a much calmer artistic style. As usual, the artist constructed the landscape with great energy. The diagonal lines of the stone walls and the rocky masses that border the Trieux estuary form the dominant lines of the composition. However, these are balanced by the vertical lines of a copse of trees in the center of the painting. Like his friend Camille Pissarro, Luce was interested in human activity, which he brings to mind here not only by including two indistinct figures, but also by alluding to human work (as suggested by the hay stacks and the stud farm).
