Georges de La Tour

Georges de La Tour – A biography full of holes

Georges de La Tour was born on 13 March 1593 in the small parish of Vic-sur-Seille in the French region of Lorraine. For a long time, not much more was known about his life, but diligent research in the last few years has brought to light at least a few details that have turned the total darkness into a faint twilight. Georges de La Tour was the son of master baker Jean de La Tour and his wife Sibylle, née Mélian, and the artist had six siblings, as was customary at the time. He must have completed his training and already had a certain reputation by 1618, for he married Diane Le Nerf, whose father was a financial administrator in the service of the Duke of Lorraine. Two years later, La Tour moved to Lunéville, his wife's hometown. He spent the majority of his life there - interrupted only by a short stay in Paris, where he was awarded the highly honourable title of peintre ordinaire du Roy, ‘official painter to the king’, by Louis XIII in 1639. 

A great artist without a teacher

If much about Georges de La Tour's life must remain in the conjunctive, then this applies above all to his artistic training. The fact that his early work is executed in the Mannerist style, as was practiced in Nancy at the time, allows the assumption that Georges de La Tour spent at least part of his apprenticeship in the city, possibly in the workshop of Jacques Bellange, and was significantly influenced there. The later increasingly evident preference for high-contrast chiaroscuro painting also points to unmistakable roots in Caravaggism, of which the Lorraine master is considered the most important representative alongside the Le Nain brothers. Whether Georges de La Tour travelled to Italy or the Netherlands in the course of his life is still disputed. What is undisputed, however, is that La Tour's work reveals a certain affinity with Spanish painting. It is completely uncertain which teachers moulded his talent and with which colleagues he socialised - the artist Georges de La Tour is an even greater mystery than the man himself.

Celebrated artist and bon vivant

There is no official self-portrait in the artist's oeuvre. One therefore has no idea what Georges de La Tour looked like - but there are those who would like to believe that the painter portrayed himself in his work The Ace of Diamonds. This supposed self-portrait, which at first glance seems very unusual, would certainly fit in with what little has survived about La Tour's lifestyle after his rise to fame, as the artist was evidently not only adept at wielding his brush, but also his fists: several reports of violent altercations are documented. His neighbours also frequently found cause for complaint. A document from the town archives of Lunéville bears witness to a complaint from the citizens to the Duke of Lorraine about the artist's ruthless behaviour, who kept a large number of dogs and drove them to chase hares across the farmers' fields, causing serious damage to the harvest.

Death followed by obscurity

The rise of their father also offered the children brilliant prospects, which led at least one of the sons Georges de La Tours to a peerage in 1670. Why this son did not use the influence undoubtedly associated with this honour to promote his father's memory is another of the many mysteries for researchers, for after the artist fell victim to an epidemic in Lunéville on 30 January 1652, his death was followed by obscurity. For a time, Georges de La Tour was completely swallowed up by the darkness of history; his paintings were admired but mislabelled and attributed alternately to Dutch, Italian and, in most cases, Spanish painting. The illustrious name of Georges de La Tour, the favourite of the rich and powerful of his time, the celebrated and sought-after painter, had vanished from reality, as if someone had suddenly blown out the faint light that dimly illuminated so many of his night pieces.

Rediscovery in the 20th century

It was not until many centuries after his death, at the beginning of the 20th century, that Georges de La Tour was rescued from undeserved obscurity. An essay by the art historian Hermann Voss lit a small candle that cast the first faint light on the oeuvre of the artist who had been thought lost. His colleagues Pierre Rosenberg and Jacques Thuillier took up this impulse in the 1970s and, with their comprehensive research work, made a decisive contribution to Georges de La Tour being given the place he deserved in art history. When the former disregard turned into admiration and almost all major museums rushed to make up for what they had previously neglected and to include La Tour's works in their collections, the artist's small oeuvre proved to be a problem: only around 40 paintings are recognised today as works by Georges de La Tour himself - a small selection for an ever-growing number of interested parties. For this reason, Georges de La Tour has almost completely disappeared from the free market. If a genuine and authentic La Tour actually comes up for auction, it will be an unprecedented sensation and a unique opportunity.

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MASTERPIECES FROM THE BISCHOFF COLLECTION