Georges de La Tour. Le nouveau né. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes.
Fame can be slow. It can take years for an artist’s work to be rediscovered and appreciated. In the case of Georges de La Tour, it took no less than 300 years - 3 centuries between his death in 1652 and his rediscovery in 1910, even though he had been a very successful painter working for rich patrons and collectors as well as for King Louis XIII. De La Tour gifted the French king a painting of Saint Sebastian - now lost - which Louis XIII loved so much that he had all the other paintings in his bedroom removed to keep only de la Tour’s painting.
The Musée Jacquemart-André, in Paris, a sort of French Frick collection, is hosting one of the largest exhibitions dedicated to this 17th Century master. Unfortunately, many works have been lost. There remains only 40 authentic Georges de La Tour paintings known in the world and Musée Jacquemart-André will be showing 30 works - paintings, engravings, etc. - on loan from public and private collections. It’s a feast for the eye and the soul.
Georges de La Tour. Les Joueurs de Dés. Preston Park Museum and Grounds. Photo Simon Hill
The exhibition starts with the origins. De La Tour lives away from Paris and from the royal court, in the independent duchy of Lorraine. He paints humble people, peasants, soldiers, but under his brush, they have dignity. He looks at them with empathy. His Femme à la puce, a woman looking for fleas on her body, just lit by a single candle next to her, looks like a mediation scene. It is a very serene scene. From his beginnings, de La Tour’s paintings also show a deep spirituality accented by the chiaroscuro lighting inspired by Caravaggio. The Italian artist, 20 years older than de La Tour, worked roughly at the same time and was hugely influential throughout Europe.
From his youth de La Tour showed a deep interest in people in the margins of society - musicians, beggars, blind men, old people, which were not considered noble subjects at the time. “Georges de La Tour was ‘the painter of real life’ (as the 1934 exhibition at the musée de l’Orangerie was titled),” explains the museum. In his paintings called Les Veilleurs (“The watchmen”), the old men have faces with deep wrinkles brought by a hard life, their clothes are worn, but they have dignity without a hint of sentimentality. De La Tour is paying attention and depicting the social reality of his native Lorraine, in Northeastern France.
A room is dedicated to the portraits of the saints - Saint Jacques, Saint Philippe, Saint Thomas, Saint Grégoire. These are an essential part of de La Tour’s production. “Each is striking for the intensity of his presence: each face painted in a cold light on a neutral background. It’s a quiet spirituality far removed from the ecstasy of baroque paintings,” explains the museum. It’s a depiction of an authentic humankind.
Georges de La Tour, Le Souffleur à la Pipe. Tokyo Fuji Art Museum
The last rooms of the exhibition aptly named “Between Shadow and Light”, present Georges de La Tour masterpieces: nighttime paintings. In these stunning works which can absorb us completely, light is not present only to light the room or the people, it becomes the very subject of the painting. De La Tour’s light envelops the scene in a deeply poetic and mystical aura. The light tells the story in itself. For instance, Le Nouveau Né (“The newborn”), transcends this simple family scene - 2 women, the younger one holding a baby wrapped in a white cloth. The light bounced off one of the 2 characters’s white shirt. It’s as if the light is coming from inside her. The work becomes something spiritual and troubling. The light seems to emanate from the new born himself. The emotional impact of this painting is absolutely stunning. That’s the miracle that Georges de La Tour manages to produce over and over again and completely absorbs us. We become part of the painting.
~Jean-Sébastien Stehli.
George de la Tour, Entre Ombre & Lumière. Musée Jacquemart André. 11.09 - 26.01.2026. musee-jacquemart-andre.com
