GEORGES DE LA TOUR 1/4 – He was born as the son of the master baker Jean de la Tour and Sibylle Mélian in Vic-sur-Seille. In 1618, he married Diane Le Nerf, the daughter of the duke of Lorraine. He was a good and ambitious businessman, who soon became famous and wealthy and had a large workshop with numerous assistants. GEORGES DE LA TOUR 2/4 – Influenced by the painter Caravaggio, Georges de la Tour produced genre paintings of mythological and religious scenes, but he became most famous for his night pieces. 1625: with very few exceptions, all of La Tour’s paintings after this year are night scenes, largely dependent on the highly expressive use of a source of light within the painting. He often painted his pictures with artificial lighting and employed a high-contrast chiaroscuro effect. GEORGES DE LA TOUR 3/4 – In his lifetime, he must have been one of the most admired painters. Not many of his works survived, and these can be divided into his early “day pieces” and the later “night pieces”. None of La Tour’s paintings involves more than a few figures; they are shown in simple, stable groupings arranged close to the picture plane in a space defined by light. GEORGES DE LA TOUR 4/4 – The brutal realism, unflattering presentation of the miserable subjects, does not at all mean a sympathetic attitude to the socially disadvantaged of the day. His patrons included Louis XIII, Cardinal Richelieu and the Duke of Lorraine, and he became official court painter to Louis XIV. You can see more on Meeting Benches, looking for: BETWEEN CANDLE AND MYSTICAL NIGHT SCENES – George de La Tour: Museo del Prado, until June 12, 2016 and for GEORGES DE LA TOUR (1593/1652), FRENCH PAINTER – Mystical night scenes, with candle, torch, or lantern
