MOLLY LUCE
(1896-1986)
Molly Luce painted views of small-town America in the simplified manner of the
"American Scene" painters of the 1930s. Her narrative style, gentle humor and
wit earned her the sobriquet "the American Breughel," and is characterized by
closely-observed detail and art historical references. She was born in
Pittsburgh and studied at Wheaton College. In 1916 she moved to New York to
attend the Art Students' League where she studied with K.H. Miller, F. Luis
Mora, and George Bellows. She traveled to Europe in 1922 and upon her return had
a solo exhibition at the Whitney Studio Club, where her work met with the
enthusiastic acclaim of critic and art historian Alan Burroughs. The two were
married in 1926 and traveled throughout Europe studying some of the world's
great paintings. Luce exhibited widely in Boston and New York throughout the
1930s and '40s and also appeared in shows at the Art Institute of Chicago, the
Cincinnati Art Museum, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Pennsyvania Academy of Fine
Arts, the Museum of Modern Art, the Corcoran Gallery, the National Academy of
Design, and the Rhode Island School of Design. Luce sometimes went by the name
Marion L. Burroughs. She lived for many years in Belmont, Massachusetts and in
Little Compton, Rhode Island from 1942 until her death in 1986.
Tempest
30" x 40" oil on canvas; SLL; 1937
Courtesy of Roger King Gallery of Fine Art, Newport, Rhode Island