The Good Samaritan inspired French Maximilien Luce Counted Cross Stitch Pattern

• This pattern is charted for 14 grid/count fabric; finished size is 16 inches (224 stitches) by 12 inches (168 stitches); Fun DIY project.

• THIS IS NOT A KIT. No Floss or fabric are included. Purchase is for paper chart only. You will receive two patterns printed on bright white 11" by 17" paper; Chart#1 is a single page and Chart #2 is a 4 page enlarged chart to work from.

• Stitching should be fun! We are happy to customize the pattern to your specifications; We will rechart for different grid/fabric count or change the size; Orenco Originals patterns can be used to stitch a counted needlepoint project.

• Orenco Originals is happy to email you a supply list detailing the DMC Floss and number of skeins needed to complete the project so you can buy or organize floss to start stitching once your pattern arrives; email us after you order.

• Orenco Originals patterns are designed and created in the USA and we guarantee all patterns 100%; This item is a Counted Cross Stitch Pattern that you will use to sew and create a picture; it is NOT a finished product.

Maximilien Luce, 1858 – 1941, was a prolific French Neo-impressionist artist, known for his paintings, illustrations, engravings, and graphic art, and also for his anarchist activism. Starting as an engraver, he then concentrated on painting, first as an Impressionist, then as a Pointillist, and finally returning to Impressionism.  Luce spent four years in the military, starting in 1879, serving in Brittany. The next year, he received a promotion to corporal, and he became friends with Alexandre Millerand, who, in 1920, assumed the office of President of France.  Gausson and Cavallo-Péduzzi introduced Luce in about 1884 to the Divisionist technique developed by Georges Seurat. This influenced Luce to begin painting in the Pointillist style. In contrast to Seurat's detached manner, Luce's paintings were passionate portrayals of contemporary subjects, depicting the "violent effects of light". He moved to Montmartre in 1887. Luce joined the Société des Artistes Independents and participated in their third spring exhibition, where Paul Signac purchased one of his pieces, La Toilette. A New York Times critic declared this Pointillist period to be the pinnacle of Luce's artistic career, singling out the radiant 1895 painting On the Bank of the Seine at Poissy as an example. He described the skillfully executed painting as "a lyrical celebration of nature".
Starting near the early part of the twentieth century, his identification with the Neo-impressionists began to disappear, as he became less active politically, and his artistic style shifted from Neo-impressionism, and he resumed painting in an Impressionist manner. Some of his paintings during this period depicted wounded World War I soldiers arriving from the battlefront to Paris. Luce depicted a diverse range of subjects in his works over a long career. He most frequently created landscapes, but his other works include portraits, still life (especially florals), domestic scenes, such as bathers, and images of welders, rolling mill operators, and other laborers.  Luce's choice of subject matter for his art was often rooted in his political beliefs. Through his paintings, he passionately demonstrated empathy and fellowship with the proletariat.
Luce was among the most productive of the Neo-impressionists, creating over two thousand oil paintings, a comparably large number of watercolors, gouaches, pastels, and drawings, plus over a hundred prints. The Musée d'Orsay assesses Luce as "one of the best representatives of the neo-impressionist movement". Although he had had many solo exhibitions of his work in France, the first one in the United States did not occur until a 1997 retrospective at Wildenstein & Company in Manhattan. Notre Dame de Paris, painted in 1900, sold at auction in May 2011 for $4,200,000, setting a record for Luce's work.