Luke Hueber (1888 – 1944)

Luc Hueber

Nude seated , dated 1925

Oil on canvas
Signed and dated “1925” lower left
Size: 109 x 86cm
With frame: 137 x 115 cm

sold

“Drunk with color, he shares his intoxication with us” Robert Heitz, Latest News from Alsace

Luc Hueber became a painter late in life. His father, a dignitary from Strasbourg, refused to allow him to pursue an artistic career; encouraging him more in baking than in painting. Luc Hueber works as a pastry chef and joins the foreign legion.

He did an artistic training as a stained glass painter with Auguste Cammissar (1873-1963) and continued his apprenticeship at the School of Decorative Arts in Strasbourg. In 1924, he acquired the Maison des Païens in La Petite-Pierre (now an exhibition space) and enjoyed painting the surrounding nature.

In Paris, he met Charles Guérin and frequented the Grande Chaumière. He joined the May Group in 1919 and exhibited with them once a year in May until 1934. Simon Lévy, a member of the group, introduced him to the work of Cézanne.

For the painter, the period is rich in experiences and lessons. Back in Strasbourg in 1930, he enjoyed painting a few still lifes, nudes, interior scenes and rare portraits.

The painting presents a naked woman, seated facing the viewer, her head tilted and her gaze out of the frame. The model, who is assumed to be the painter’s wife, is painted with liveliness and truthfulness. Hueber shades his skin and gives the whole an almost statuary dimension.

The painter cultivates the charm of the studio by pointing out a blue curtain, behind the nude, a caned chair, a pitcher and a few apples. From Picasso (the sheet of the Demoiselles d’Avignon), to Van Gogh (the caned chair in his hospital room) via Cézanne (the still lifes with apples), he had his model pose by drawing inspiration from these references. avant-gardes, demonstrating its visual culture with subtlety.

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