Background
Georges de La Tour was born on March 13, 1593, in Vic-sur-Seilles, France. He was a second child of Jean de La Tour, a baker, and Sybille de La Tour, who had seven children. By some accounts, Sybille had partly noble origins.
Georges de La Tour was born on March 13, 1593, in Vic-sur-Seilles, France. He was a second child of Jean de La Tour, a baker, and Sybille de La Tour, who had seven children. By some accounts, Sybille had partly noble origins.
Georges de La Tour possibly became an apprentice of Alphonse de Rambervilliers, a poet and amateur engraver, around 1605 in Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France. Later, de La Tour was probably a pupil of Jacques Bellange, an artist and printmaker.
Georges de La Tour moved to Lunéville, France in 1620 where he probably opened a studio, the employment of apprentices is documented in 1626, 1636, 1643, and 1648.
Two de La Tours' paintings were commissioned in 1623-1624 by the reigning Duke of Lorraine, Henri II according to some documents. Later, about 1638-1639, de La Tour had a trip to Paris where he spent some time producing works for Cardinal Richelieu. In Paris, the artist received a title of Ordinary Painter to King Louis XIII to whom he presented a Night Scene with Saint Sebastian. Between 1644 and 1651, de La Tour was appointed an official painter of Lunéville by its French governor, the marquis de La Ferté-Sénecterre. Payment documents bear witness to his continued activity in Lorraine until his death early in 1652.
While these archival notices suggest the nature and extent of de La Tour's work, there are significant gaps in the records, and it isn't easy to correlate the chronology of his paintings with the factual evidence of his life. However, de La Tour's originality is apparent in his earliest signed painting, such as The Cheat (1625). The subject of a group of card players, long popular in the Netherlands as well as with Caravaggio and his followers in Italy, is presented with a startling dignity and clarity, showing La Tour's ability to select, simplify, and generalize. The same characteristics can be found in such early works as The Musicians' Quarrel and The Fortune Teller, usually dated the early or mid-1630s.
With very few exceptions, all of Georges de La Tour's paintings after these early dates are night scenes, largely dependent on the highly expressive use of a source of light within the painting. Repentant Saint Peter of 1645 and The Denial of Saint Peter of 1650 are among the examples.
Highly successful in his life as a painter in Lorraine whose work was also known and admired at the court of Louis XIII, Georges de La Tour was virtually forgotten after his death until the early 20th century when the German art historian Hermann Voss and other scholars identified the body of his work after 1915. In 1934, his work was first presented to the public in an exhibition of the "Painters of Reality in France" that took place in Paris. Since then further discoveries have been made, more paintings have been added to the number believed to be surely by his hand. De La Tour's work continues to exert a wide appeal but fundamental questions about his life as an artist remain unanswered and perhaps always will.
Georges de La Tour was a prolific and successful artist whose works are highly original in colour and composition.
Many of de La Tours' paintings are acquired by such world-known galleries as the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C, the Louvre Museum in Paris, the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, and Lviv National Art Gallery, Ukraine.
Forgotten after his death and rediscovered at the beginning of World War I, the artist inspired many cineastes, including Peter Greenaway with his movie The Draughtsman's Contract. De La Tour's works are also featured in such movies as Le Dîner de Cons by Francis Veber (the painting Job Mocked by His Wife), Le Divorce, and Disney's The Little Mermaid of 1989 (the painting Magdalene with the Smoking Flame).
St. Jerome Reading
The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds
St. Andrew
The Adoration of the Shepherds
The Porridge Eaters
St. Jude Thaddeus
St. Thomas
St. Matthew
St. Philippe
St. Thomas (Saint with a Pike)
St. Simon
Old Man
St. Joseph, the Carpenter
Education of the Virgin
St. Sebastian with Lantern
The Beggars' Brawl
The Discovery of the Body of St. Alexis
The Payment of Dues
The Dice Players
The Fortune-Teller
Repenting Magdalene, also called Magdalene and Two Flames
Girl with a Brazier
Woman Catching a Flea
St. Sebastian Tended by St. Irene
Repenting of St. Jerome (St. Jerome with Cardinal Hat)
St. Paul
The Denial of St. Peter
The Blind Hurdy Gurdy Player
The Hurdy-Gurdy Player
Tears of St. Peter
Repentant Magdalene (Magdalene in a Flickering Light)
The Triangle Player
Boy Blowing at Lamp
St. James the Greater
The Tears of St. Peter (Repenting of St. Peter)
St. James the Minor
St. Francis in Extasy (The Praying Monk beside the Dying Monk)
Saint Jerome Reading a Letter
The Newborn (St. Anne and the Virgin in Linen)
Adoration of the Shepherds
St. John the Baptist in the Desert
St. Peter
St. Jerome
The Hurdy-Gurdy Player (Hurdy-Gurdy Player with Hat)
Payment of Taxes
The Young Singer
St. Jerome Reading
Old Woman
The Newborn
Job Mocked by His Wife
Repenting Magdalene (Magdalene in a Flickering Light)
Blower with a Pipe
Appearance of Angel to St. Joseph (The Song of St. Joseph)
Education of the Virgin (detail)
Repenting Magdalene (Magdalene before Mirror or Magadalene Fabius)
St. Jerome Reading
The Hurdy-Gurdy Player with a Dog
Georges de La Tour was mentioned as one of the founding members of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1648.
Georges de La Tour married Diane Le Nerf who came from a wealthy family of silversmiths in 1617. The couple had one son, Étienne, born in 1621. Étienne was a pupil of his father.