Georges de La Tour

Nocturnal candlelight scenes

The painter of candlelight. His nocturnal scenes — a single flame illuminating a face in prayer, a card cheat's sidelong glance, Mary Magdalene contemplating a skull — achieve a stillness and geometric purity that feels both Caravaggist and oddly modern. Forgotten for centuries, rediscovered in the twentieth.

Key works

• The Penitent Magdalene~1640— A candle, a skull, and absolute stillness
  Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds~1635— Deception by candlelight
  Louvre, Paris

Connections

External