Georges de La Tour (13 March 1593 – 30 January 1652) was a

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...

painter, who spent most of his working life in the Duchy of Lorraine, which was temporarily absorbed into France between 1641 and 1648. He painted mostly religious

chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...

scenes lit by candlelight.

Personal life

Georges de La Tour was born in the town of Vic-sur-Seille in the Diocese of Metz, which was technically part of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 unt ...

, but had been ruled by France since 1552. Baptism documentation revealed that he was the son of Jean de La Tour, a baker, and Sybille de La Tour, née Molian. It has been suggested that Sybille came from a partly noble family. His parents had seven children in all, with Georges being the second-born. La Tour's educational background remains somewhat unclear, but it is assumed that he traveled either to Italy or the Netherlands early in his career. He may possibly have trained under

Jacques Bellange Jacques Bellange (c. 1575–1616) was an artist and printmaker from the Duchy of Lorraine (then independent but now part of France) whose etchings and some drawings are his only securely identified works today. They are among the most striking Nor ...

in Nancy, the capital of Lorraine, although their styles are very different. His paintings reflect the

naturalism of

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of h ...

, but this probably reached him through the Dutch ''Caravaggisti'' of the Utrecht School and other Northern (

and Dutch) contemporaries. In particular, La Tour is often compared to the Dutch painter Hendrick Terbrugghen.Anthony Blunt, ''Art and Architecture in France, 1500–1700'', 1953, Penguin In 1617 he married Diane Le Nerf, from a minor noble family, and in 1620 he established his studio in her quiet provincial home-town of

Lunéville Lunéville ( ; German, obsolete: ''Lünstadt'' ) is a commune in the northeastern French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle. It is a subprefecture of the department and lies on the river Meurthe at its confluence with the Vezouze. History L ...

, part of the independent Duchy of Lorraine which was occupied by France, during his lifetime, in the period 1641–1648. He painted mainly religious and some genre scenes. He was given the title "Painter to the King" (of France) in 1638, and he also worked for the Dukes of Lorraine in 1623–4, but the local bourgeoisie provided his main market, and he achieved a certain affluence. He is not recorded in Lunéville between 1639 and 1642, and may have traveled again; Anthony Blunt detected the influence of

Gerrit van Honthorst Gerard van Honthorst (Dutch: ''Gerrit van Honthorst''; 4 November 1592 – 27 April 1656) was a Dutch Golden Age painter who became known for his depiction of artificially lit scenes, eventually receiving the nickname ''Gherardo delle Notti' ...

in his paintings after this point. He was involved in a

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

-led religious revival in Lorraine, and over the course of his career he moved to painting almost entirely religious subjects, but in treatments with influence from ''genre'' painting. Georges de La Tour and his family died in 1652 in an epidemic in Lunéville. His son Étienne (1621-1692) was his pupil.

Works

Georges de La Tour (atelier) Saint Jerome lisant Musee Lorrain

La Tour's early work shows influences from

, probably via his Dutch followers, and the genre scenes of cheats—as in '' The Fortune Teller''—and fighting beggars clearly derive from the Dutch Caravaggisti, and probably also his fellow-Lorrainer,

. These are believed to date from relatively early in his career. La Tour is best known for the nocturnal light effects which he developed much further than his artistic predecessors had done, and transferred their use in the genre subjects in the paintings of the Dutch ''Caravaggisti'' to religious painting in his. Unlike Caravaggio his religious paintings lack dramatic effects. He painted these in a second phase of his style, perhaps beginning in the 1640s, using

, careful geometrical compositions, and very simplified painting of forms. His work moves during his career towards greater simplicity and stillness—taking from Caravaggio very different qualities than

Jusepe de Ribera Jusepe de Ribera (1591 – 1652) was a painter and printmaker, who along with Francisco de Zurbarán, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and the singular Diego Velázquez, are regarded as the major artists of Spanish Baroque painting. Referrin ...

and his

Tenebrist Tenebrism, from Italian ' ("dark, gloomy, mysterious"), also occasionally called dramatic illumination, is a style of painting using especially pronounced chiaroscuro, where there are violent contrasts of light and dark, and where darkness becom ...

followers did. Georges de La Tour - Rixe de musiciens - Google Art Project

He often painted several variations on the same subjects, and his surviving output is relatively small. His son Étienne was his pupil, and distinguishing between their work in versions of La Tour's compositions is difficult. The version of the ''Education of the Virgin'' in the

Frick Collection The Frick Collection is an art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection (normally at the Henry Clay Frick House, currently at the Frick Madison) features Old Master paintings and European fine and decorative arts, including works by ...

in New York is an example, as the Museum itself admits. Another group of paintings (example left), of great skill but claimed to be different in style to those of La Tour, have been attributed to an unknown "Hurdy-gurdy Master". All show older male figures (one group in Malibu includes a female), mostly solitary, either beggars or saints. After his death at Lunéville in 1652, La Tour's work was forgotten until rediscovered in 1915 by Hermann Voss, a German art historian who would later become head of Hitler's

Führermuseum The ''Führermuseum'' or ''Fuhrer-Museum'' ( English: Leader's Museum), also referred to as the Linz art gallery, was an unrealized art museum within a cultural complex planned by Adolf Hitler for his hometown, the Austrian city of Linz, nea ...

; some of La Tour's work had in fact been confused with

Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , , see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime, he was a moderately succe ...

, when the Dutch artist underwent his own rediscovery in the nineteenth century.

In film

Director Peter Greenaway has described La Tour's work as a primary influence on his 1982 film '' The Draughtsman's Contract''. '' Job Mocked by His Wife'' by La Tour appears in the 2003

Francis Veber Francis Paul Veber (born 28 July 1937) is a French film director, screenwriter and producer, and playwright. He has written and directed both French and American films. Nine French-language films with which he has been involved, as either writer ...

film '' Le Dîner de Cons'', and is a major preoccupation of the protagonist in the 1984 Muriel Spark novel ''The Only Problem''. A reference to a work purportedly by La Tour is featured prominently in the 2003

Merchant Ivory A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as industry ...

film ''

Le Divorce ''Le Divorce'' is a 2003 romantic comedy-drama film directed by James Ivory from a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and Ivory, based on the 1997 novel of the same name by Diane Johnson. Plot Isabel Walker travels to Paris to visit her siste ...

''. '' Magdalene with the Smoking Flame'' (not ''Penitent Magdalene'') is the painting in Ariel's grotto she longingly motions toward when she yearns to know about fire while singing " Part of Your World" in Disney's 1989 film '' The Little Mermaid''.

Gallery

File:Georges de La Tour 044.jpg, '' Job Mocked by his Wife'', c. 1625–1650, Musée départemental d'Art ancien et contemporain, Épinal, France File:Georges de La Tour 022.jpg, '' The Dream of St. Joseph'', c. 1628–1645, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes File:Georges de La Tour - The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame - Google Art Project.jpg, '' Magdalene with the Smoking Flame'', c. 1640,

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 19 ...

File:Georges de La Tour 003.jpg, '' St Sebastian tended by St Irene,'' 1649, Parish Broglie France File:Georges de La Tour 001.jpg, ''Nativity'', 1644,

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...

File:Georges de La Tour - Newlyborn infant - Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes.jpg, '' The Newborn Christ'', c. 1645–1648,

Museum of Fine Arts of Rennes The Museum of Fine Arts of Rennes ( ''Musée des beaux-arts de Rennes'') is a municipal museum of fine arts in the French city of Rennes, the capital of Brittany. Its collections range from ancient Egypt antiquities to the Modern art period and m ...

File:Georges de La Tour 061.jpg, '' The denial of Saint Peter'', 1651, The Metropolitan Museum of Art File:Georges de La Tour L'Education de la Vierge The Frick Collection.jpg, ''The education of the Virgin'', c. 1650,

The Frick Collection The Frick Collection is an art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection (normally at the Henry Clay Frick House, currently at the Frick Madison) features Old Master paintings and European fine and decorative arts, including works by ...

File:Georges de La Tour - Smoker.jpg, ''The smoker'', 1646,

Tokyo Fuji Art Museum was established by Daisaku Ikeda and opened near the Sōka University , abbreviated typically as or , is a private university in Hachiōji, Tokyo, Japan. In 2014, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology ...

File:Femme à la puce, Georges de la Tour.jpg, ''The Flea-Catcher'' File:Georges de La Tour Saint Andre collection privee.JPG, ''Saint Andrew'' in the '' Albi Apostles'' series, c. 1620 File:Georges de La Tour - The Repentant Magdalen - Google Art Project.jpg, '' The Repentant Magdalene'', c. 1635-1640, National Gallery of Art Image:Georges de La Tour - The Cheat with the Ace of Clubs - Google Art Project.jpg, ''The Cheat with the Ace of Clubs'', c. late 1620s,

Kimbell Art Museum The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, hosts an art collection as well as traveling art exhibitions, educational programs and an extensive research library. Its initial artwork came from the private collection of Kay and Velma Kimbell, wh ...

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the List of cities in Texas by population, fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the List of United States cities by population, 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, T ...

. Another version (with Diamonds and slightly different clothes) is in the Louvre. File:Georges_de_La_Tour,_The_Fortune_Teller.jpg, '' The Fortune Teller'', 1633–1639,

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

File:Ciego tocando la zanfonía (Georges de La Tour).jpg, ''The Hurdy-Gurdy Player'', c. 1610–1630,

Prado Museum The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from th ...

Image:Georges de La Tour 056.jpg, ''Portrait of an Old Man'', c. 1624–1650, De Young Museum, San Francisco Image:Georges de La Tour 055.jpg, ''Portrait of an Old Woman'', c. 1624–1650, De Young Museum, San Francisco Image:Georges de La Tour 014.jpg, ''

St Jerome Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is com ...

'', c. 1630–1632,

Nationalmuseum Nationalmuseum (or National Museum of Fine Arts) is the national gallery of Sweden, located on the peninsula Blasieholmen in central Stockholm. The museum's operations stretches far beyond the borders of Blasieholmen, the nationalmuseum manage ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

Galleries containing La Tour's works

Canada

* Art Gallery of Ontario, Musée des Beaux-Arts de l'Ontario, Toronto, Ontario

France

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon is a museum of fine arts opened in 1787 in Dijon, France. It is one of the main and oldest museums of France. It is located in the historic city centre of Dijon and housed in the former ducal palace which was ...

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy The Museum of Fine Arts of Nancy, France, Nancy (french: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy), one of the oldest museums in France, is housed in one of the pavilions on Place Stanislas, in the heart of the 18th-century urban ensemble, a World Herit ...

in Nancy, former capital of Lorraine, has the largest collection. * Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes * Musée des Beaux-Arts de

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine departme ...

* Musée de Bergues * Musée départemental d'Art ancien et contemporain, Épinal * Musée Georges de La Tour, Vic-sur-Seille * Museum of Grenoble * Musée du Louvre, Paris * Musée Toulouse-Lautrec,

Albi Albi (; oc, Albi ) is a commune in southern France. It is the prefecture of the Tarn department, on the river Tarn, 85 km northeast of Toulouse. Its inhabitants are called ''Albigensians'' (french: Albigeois, Albigeoise(s), oc, albigé ...

Germany

* Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Japan

* The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo *

, Tokyo

Spain

Museo del Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from th ...

, Madrid

Sweden

, Stockholm

United Kingdom

* Preston Hall Museum in

Stockton-on-Tees Stockton-on-Tees, often simply referred to as Stockton, is a market town in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham, England. It is on the northern banks of the River Tees, part of the Teesside built-up area. The town had an estimat ...

, England, has '' The Dice Players''. * The Leicester Museum & Art Gallery holds 'The Choirboy'

Ukraine

Lviv National Art Gallery Borys Voznytsky Lviv National Art Gallery ( uk, Львівська Національна Галерея Мистецтв імені Бориса Возницького) is the largest art museum in Ukraine, with over 62,000 artworks in its colle ...

United States

* Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio *

Chrysler Museum of Art The Chrysler Museum of Art is an art museum on the border between downtown and the Ghent district of Norfolk, Virginia. The museum was founded in 1933 as the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences. In 1971, automotive heir, Walter P. Chrysler Jr. ...

, Norfolk, Virginia * Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington * De Young, San Francisco * Frick, New York * Getty Center, Los Angeles, California *

, Fort Worth, Texas *

, Los Angeles, California *

, New York * National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Notes

References

* Le Floch, Jean-Claude. ''La Tour, Le Clair et L'Obscur'', Herscher, 1995. * Le Floch, Jean-Claude. ''Le signe de contradiction : essai sur Georges de La Tour et son oeuvre'', Presses Universitaires de Rennes 2, 1995. * Thuilier, Jacques. ''Georges de La Tour'', Flammarion, 1992. * Wright, Christopher. ''The Art of the Forger'', 1984, Gordon Fraser, London. . * Furness, Sophia Mary Maud. ''Georges de la Tour of Lorraine, 1593–1652''. Published by Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd, London, 1949. .

External links

Georges de La Tour at Gallery of Art

Attributed painting at the Kimbell Art Museum of Fort Worth

Georges de La Tour. Picturesand Biography

{{DEFAULTSORT:La Tour, Georges De 1593 births 1653 deaths People from Moselle (department) French Baroque painters People from Lunéville People from Lorraine (duchy) * Caravaggisti