''The Adoration of the Shepherds'' is a 1644 oil-on-canvas painting by the French artist

Georges de La Tour Georges de La Tour (13 March 1593 – 30 January 1652) was a French Baroque 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 chia ...

. It is now in the

Louvre Museum 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 l ...

, in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, which purchased it in 1926.

History and description

The tradition of representing the theme of the adoration of the shepherds, taken from the

Gospel of Luke The Gospel of Luke), or simply Luke (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). tells of the origins, birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Together with the Acts of the Apostles, it makes up a two-vol ...

, was very common in 17th-century painting, specially among the Caravaggesque painters, who transformed this episode into a nocturnal scene by candle light. La Tour, a painter strongly influenced by Caravaggio, departed from the traditional iconography of the birth of Christ in this painting. At first glance, the scene shows a group of five people sitting around a child in the light of a lit candle. It is the only source of light that falls on the faces of the gathered people, but thanks to the obscuring hand of an old man, that is Saint Joseph, the viewer has the impression that the glow radiates from the Child Jesus. Each person seems lost in their thoughts and their eyes appear directed towards Jesus. Among the gathered there is a second woman, a maid, holding a vessel of water. There is no donkey or ox among the animals, only a sheep that appears chewing the hay. The child is lying in a wicker basket and not in a manger, as the tradition says. The shepherds are dressed in clothes contemporary of the painter. The Virgin is enhanced by her red robe, on the left, while Joseph carries the light, a traditional symbol of truth.Olivier Bonfait, Anne Reinbold and Béatrice Sarrazin, ''L'ABCdaire de Georges de la Tour'', Flammarion, 1997, pp. 28-29 (French)

Provenance

The painting was probably commissioned by the citizens of the city 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 Lu ...

, in 1644, as a tribute to the new governor, Maruiq de la Fert. For many years it was forgotten, until it was rediscovered in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

. It was purchased by the Louvre in 1926.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adoration of the Shepherds

de la Tour La Tour (as distinct from Latour) is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour (1593–1666), French Governor of Acadia * Georges de La Tour (1593–1652), French Baroque painter * Frances de la To ...

1644 paintings Paintings in the Louvre by French artists Paintings by Georges de La Tour