(Vic-sur-Seille, France, 1593- Luneville, France, 1652)
French painter and the most important representative of the naturalist school of French Baroque. His early works of daylight were very detailed, thus evidencing a clear naturalistic component, as seen in The Gambler and The Payment of the Debt. Later, his pieces show a gradual simplification and geometrization of volumes, especially in his nocturnal compositions, illuminated by the light of a candle (Penitent Magdalene, The Woman with the Flea).
De La Tour is the second of seven children of a mason and a baker's daughter. He trained in Lorraine, specifically in Nancy. His beginnings in painting are related to Claude Dogoz. He continued his training in Italy. Between 1614 and 1616, Georges de La Tour discovered Caravaggio. De La Tour married Diana Le Nerf, daughter of the Duke of Lorraine, in 1617. He later moved to Luneville due to the death of his father-in-law, where he is documented as a burgher.
Georges returned to Lunéville in 1643, where he and his wife died due to the plague epidemic in 1652. His son Étienne continued his work.
Influences on Georges de La Tour include the Italian painter Caravaggio and Carlo Saraceni. However, he is more closely related to the Dutch tenebrist painters of the Utrecht school, especially Gerard van Honthorst. Unlike Caravaggio's art, which used an imprecise light source, in de La Tour's paintings, the light source is specific: a candle, a torch, or another form of artificial light.
The most recurring themes in de La Tour's work are: religious, genre scenes, and devotion. Among the religious aspects, he preferred to paint saints associated with the plague, specialists in preventing contagion (Saint Sebastian). He had a preference for representing humble people, especially serious, contained, pious female figures: women healing the wounded, young mothers with children, various Magdalenes…
The work of Georges de La Tour has two stages: the “daytime” paintings of the first period (famous paintings of gamblers and soldiers, reflecting the reality of his native Lorraine), and the “nocturnal” paintings of the second (nocturnal paintings with night lights, using a monochrome palette with red and black).
Notable works include: The Pea Eaters, Old Man, Hurdy-Gurdy Player with Dog, Saint James the Less, Musicians' Quarrel, Saint Jerome with a Letter…
French painter and the most important representative of the naturalist school of French Baroque. His early works of daylight were very detailed, thus evidencing a clear naturalistic component, as seen in The Gambler and The Payment of the Debt. Later, his pieces show a gradual simplification and geometrization of volumes, especially in his nocturnal compositions, illuminated by the light of a candle (Penitent Magdalene, The Woman with the Flea).
De La Tour is the second of seven children of a mason and a baker's daughter. He trained in Lorraine, specifically in Nancy. His beginnings in painting are related to Claude Dogoz. He continued his training in Italy. Between 1614 and 1616, Georges de La Tour discovered Caravaggio. De La Tour married Diana Le Nerf, daughter of the Duke of Lorraine, in 1617. He later moved to Luneville due to the death of his father-in-law, where he is documented as a burgher.
Georges returned to Lunéville in 1643, where he and his wife died due to the plague epidemic in 1652. His son Étienne continued his work.
Influences on Georges de La Tour include the Italian painter Caravaggio and Carlo Saraceni. However, he is more closely related to the Dutch tenebrist painters of the Utrecht school, especially Gerard van Honthorst. Unlike Caravaggio's art, which used an imprecise light source, in de La Tour's paintings, the light source is specific: a candle, a torch, or another form of artificial light.
The most recurring themes in de La Tour's work are: religious, genre scenes, and devotion. Among the religious aspects, he preferred to paint saints associated with the plague, specialists in preventing contagion (Saint Sebastian). He had a preference for representing humble people, especially serious, contained, pious female figures: women healing the wounded, young mothers with children, various Magdalenes…
The work of Georges de La Tour has two stages: the “daytime” paintings of the first period (famous paintings of gamblers and soldiers, reflecting the reality of his native Lorraine), and the “nocturnal” paintings of the second (nocturnal paintings with night lights, using a monochrome palette with red and black).
Notable works include: The Pea Eaters, Old Man, Hurdy-Gurdy Player with Dog, Saint James the Less, Musicians' Quarrel, Saint Jerome with a Letter…
