Georges de La Tour

Georges de La Tour (1593–1652) was born in Vic-sur-Seille in the Diocese of Metz, the son of a baker. His training is undocumented: he probably travelled to Italy or the Netherlands as a young man, and may have studied under Jacques Bellange in Nancy. In 1617 he married Diane Le Nerf, and in 1620 he set up his studio in her home town of Lunéville in the Duchy of Lorraine, where he and his family died in an epidemic in 1652. He is best known for religious scenes lit by candlelight. The nocturnal effects came from the genre pictures of Caravaggio's Dutch followers, and La Tour carried them into sacred subjects, his compositions growing simpler, stiller and more geometrical over time. He worked for the Dukes of Lorraine and was named Painter to the King in 1638, yet was forgotten soon after his death until the German art historian Hermann Voss rediscovered him in 1915. Four works here, including The Newborn, Joseph the Carpenter and The Penitent Magdalen.