Luc Benoist (1893-1980) was a French writer, art historian, and museum curator. Benoist originally focused on art and art history. He held several influential posts as curator, including as assistant curator at Versailles and then as curator of the Museum of Fine Arts in Nantes. He wrote a number of books and articles on sculpture and other arts. Then, in 1928, he encountered the work of René Guénon and thereafter began contributing to traditionalist thought. His book The Esoteric Path: An Introduction to the Hermetic Tradition (Sophia Perennis, 2004) is a survey of esoterism within such traditions as Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam, but most of his work remains untranslated into English. Luc Benoist has been called "the most balanced and authentic exponent of Guénon’s teaching…[in whose work] true scholarship is combined so well with conciseness and comprehensiveness."

Luc Benoist's essay “The Origins of Art ”, which appeared in the Summer-Autumn 1980 issue of Studies, combines his interests in art and the nature of traditional man.