Georges de La Tour

Timeline

1. 1593–1623Lunéville · LunévilleLa Tour was born in Vic-sur-Seille in the diocese of Metz. His early training is unclear—he may have traveled to Italy or the Netherlands, or come into contact with Jacques Bellange in Nancy; Caravaggesque naturalism more likely spread north via the Utrecht school. He married in 1617 and established a studio in Lunéville in 1620, serving Lorraine's townsfolk and nobility.
2. 1623–1638Lunéville · LunévilleBy 1623–1624 he was already painting for Duke Henry II of Lorraine and sold daylight genre works such as The Fortune Teller and The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds in provincial markets. These works inherited the cheats-and-musicians subjects of the Utrecht Caravaggisti, with realistic figures and already dramatic light and shadow, but had not yet entered his signature single-candle compositions.
3. 1638–1645Lunéville · LunévilleIn 1638 he received the title 'Painter to the King'; Louis XIII, Henry II of Lorraine, and the Duke of La Ferté all collected his works. He is absent from Lunéville records in 1639–1642, after which his night scenes draw closer to Honthorst. He applied Caravaggesque chiaroscuro to religious interiors: the candle became the sole light source, forms were cut into geometric planes, and dramatic narrative gave way to quiet contemplation, as in Magdalen with the Smoking Flame and Saint Joseph the Carpenter.
4. 1645–1652Lunéville · LunévilleIn the mid-to-late 1640s his colors grew more monochrome and the human figure was reduced to the limit. The Lunéville municipal authorities once gifted night scenes such as Adoration of the Shepherds to the provincial governor La Ferté. He took part in the religious revival promoted by the Lorraine Franciscans, his subjects being almost entirely sacred history. He died of plague with his family on 30 January 1652. His works were soon misattributed to others and only reauthenticated by Hermann Voss in 1915.