The Candlelit Paintings of Georges de La Tour
Few painters in the history of Western art have been so completely forgotten and then so triumphantly recovered as Georges de La Tour. For more than two centuries after his death in 1652, his name was almost unknown outside a few collectors of provincial Lorraine. Then, in 1915, the German art historian Hermann Voss identified a small group of candle-lit nocturnal scenes scattered across the world’s museums as the work of a single seventeenth century French master. Today the Georges de La Tour paintings count among the most distinctive religious images of the entire Baroque age, and his candles, his white linen, and his hushed contemplative faces have a quality found nowhere else.
This article gathers nine of his most important surviving religious works, the panels that have made his slow recovery in the twentieth century one of the great rehabilitations of art history.
The Painter of Vic-sur-Seille
Georges de La Tour was baptised on 14 March 1593 in Vic-sur-Seille, a small town in the Duchy of Lorraine, the son of Jean de La Tour, a baker, and Sybille de Cosserat. He probably trained locally and may have visited the Netherlands, where the Caravaggesque painters of Utrecht had recently begun to popularise the dramatic nocturnal manner that would shape his entire mature output. In 1620 he moved to the larger Lorraine city of Lunéville, where he spent the rest of his life.
He worked for the dukes of Lorraine, was named ordinary painter to the king of France in 1639, and was admired by Cardinal Richelieu. His reputation in Lorraine and Paris in his own lifetime was substantial, but the Thirty Years War devastated the province, the dukes of Lorraine were expelled from their capitals, and after his death his name fell rapidly into obscurity. The recovery began only with the great rediscovery exhibition of 1934 at the Orangerie in Paris.
The Adoration of the Shepherds
Painted in the early 1640s, this small but unforgettable canvas shows the Virgin, Joseph, and three shepherds gathered around the newborn Christ, who lies swaddled in white linen at the centre of the composition. The only source of light in the picture is the candle that Joseph holds, partly shielded by his hand, casting a deep golden glow over the faces of the worshippers. The infant himself is the brightest point in the scene.
The painting is at the Louvre Museum in Paris, Room 912 of the Department of Paintings. It is the single most reproduced of all La Tour’s religious works.
The Penitent Magdalene
La Tour painted at least four versions of the penitent Magdalene, each one a single seated figure in a darkened room contemplating a flame. The Magdalene leans her chin on her hand, a skull resting on her knees, while the flame of a small oil lamp or candle illuminates her face. The mirror, the gold and pearls on the table, and the open book of meditation complete the iconography of a soul turning from worldly vanity to the divine.
The version reproduced here is one of the variants that has passed through several collections.
Saint Peter Repentant
Saint Peter sits in profile, weeping into his hands while a small candle illuminates his white beard and the rooster that has just crowed to remind him of his three denials of Christ. La Tour paints the saint with the same hushed candle-light atmosphere as his Magdalenes. The picture is a study in contrition, with the apostle’s tears caught at the very moment of recognition.
The painting is at the Cleveland Museum of Art and is dated and signed 1645.
Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene
One of La Tour’s most haunting compositions, this large nocturnal scene shows the fourth century Roman martyr Saint Sebastian after he has been shot full of arrows by the Praetorian guard. The Roman matron Saint Irene and her companions have come to nurse him back to life. A single torch held by an attendant illuminates the still body of the saint while the women bend over him in silent grief. Two versions of the composition are known.
One of the original autograph versions is reproduced here, in a private collection. A second autograph version is at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, while several workshop variants also exist.
Saint Sebastian Tended by Saint Irene (second version)
The companion painting, slightly different in composition, presents the same scene with subtle variations in the placement of the figures and the candlelight. La Tour returned to subjects he loved several times, painting variants with great care over a number of years.
The original of this version is in a private collection. For a wider survey of the subject, see our article on Saint Sebastian paintings.
Saint Philip the Apostle
From the famous Apostles series that La Tour painted in the 1620s, the figure of Saint Philip stands in three-quarter view, an old man with white beard holding the wooden staff of his pilgrimage. The light falls dramatically across his weathered features, recalling the late Caravaggesque painters of Naples and the Utrecht school. The figure has the worn quietness that distinguishes all of La Tour’s apostles.
The painting is now in a private collection. The original Apostles series was painted for the church of the Carmelites of Albi and was scattered in the eighteenth century.
Saint Jude the Apostle
From the same Apostles series, Saint Jude the brother of James is shown holding the heavy halberd of his martyrdom, his head tilted slightly to one side in calm patience. La Tour paints the apostle with the same observational realism that all of his disciples receive, treating each one as a particular human being rather than as an abstract type.
The painting is at the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec in Albi, the only museum where two original panels from the Carmelite series have remained together.
Saint Thomas
Saint Thomas the apostle holds the architect’s set square that recalls the medieval legend of his preaching in India and his foundation of churches there. La Tour paints the saint with the same close realism as the other apostles in the series, but with a slight melancholy that recalls the doubting of his gospel encounter with the risen Christ.
The painting is at the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo.
The Image of Saint Alexis
The medieval Roman saint Alexis, who fled his own wedding to live as a beggar in the Holy Land and then returned to his father’s house unrecognised, was a favourite subject of Counter-Reformation devotional literature. La Tour paints the discovery scene, in which the family servant finds the dead beggar under the staircase and recognises in him the long-lost son. The whole picture is lit by a single candle held by the servant.
The painting is at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin.
For more context on the French seventeenth century world, see our articles on La Tour’s contemporary Philippe de Champaigne, on Eustache Le Sueur, and on Nicolas Poussin. The wider Baroque Jesus paintings tradition holds La Tour as one of its most original Northern voices.
Summary Table of Georges de La Tour’s Religious Paintings
| Name | Artist | Date | Medium | Museum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Adoration of the Shepherds | Georges de La Tour | c. 1644 | Oil on canvas | Louvre Museum, Paris |
| The Penitent Magdalene | Georges de La Tour | c. 1640 | Oil on canvas | Private collection (one of several versions) |
| Saint Peter Repentant | Georges de La Tour | 1645 | Oil on canvas | Cleveland Museum of Art |
| Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene | Georges de La Tour | c. 1649 | Oil on canvas | Private collection (autograph version) |
| Saint Sebastian Tended by Saint Irene (second version) | Georges de La Tour | c. 1649 | Oil on canvas | Private collection (autograph version) |
| Saint Philip the Apostle | Georges de La Tour | c. 1624 | Oil on canvas | Private collection |
| Saint Jude the Apostle | Georges de La Tour | c. 1624 | Oil on canvas | Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, Albi |
| Saint Thomas | Georges de La Tour | c. 1624 | Oil on canvas | National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo |
| The Image of Saint Alexis | Georges de La Tour | c. 1648 | Oil on canvas | National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin |
Conclusion
La Tour’s religious painting is one of the most concentrated expressions of Catholic piety in the seventeenth century. The candle that recurs in almost every one of his late paintings is not just a pictorial device but a theological image. It is the small light of faith burning in the darkness of the world, the patience of the Magdalene, the tears of Peter, the silence around the manger. The fact that this body of work nearly disappeared from history before being recovered in the twentieth century makes its survival feel almost miraculous, like the candle’s flame in his own paintings.
Important Facts About Georges de La Tour
- Georges de La Tour was baptised on 14 March 1593 in Vic-sur-Seille, in the Duchy of Lorraine, the son of Jean de La Tour, a master baker, and his wife Sybille de Cosserat, in a family of modest social standing.
- He probably trained locally, perhaps with the painter Alphonse de Rambervilliers, and may have visited the Northern Netherlands or Rome in his youth, where he would have encountered the Caravaggesque manner that shaped his entire mature output.
- La Tour is one of the most original masters of French seventeenth century religious painting and is celebrated above all for his candle-lit nocturnal scenes, in which a single flame illuminates faces and white linen against deep shadow.
- His most famous religious work is the Adoration of the Shepherds, painted around 1644 and now displayed in Room 912 of the Department of Paintings of the Louvre Museum in Paris.
- He died on 30 January 1652 in Lunéville, having been named ordinary painter to King Louis XIII in 1639, and his work fell into almost complete obscurity until its great rediscovery in the early twentieth century, beginning with the identification by Hermann Voss in 1915.
Questions and Answers About Georges de La Tour Paintings
What is Georges de La Tour’s most famous painting?
The Adoration of the Shepherds at the Louvre is by far his most reproduced work and the single image most associated with his name. His Penitent Magdalene, in its various surviving versions, is the most studied of his single-figure compositions, and the dated Saint Peter Repentant at the Cleveland Museum of Art is one of his most psychologically intense panels.
Where can I see Georges de La Tour paintings today?
The Louvre in Paris holds the great Adoration of the Shepherds and several other works including the Magdalene with Two Flames. The Cleveland Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum, the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin, and the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec in Albi all hold important panels. Several private collections still preserve autograph versions of his major compositions.
What style is Georges de La Tour associated with?
La Tour is one of the most original masters of the French Baroque and the leading representative of the Caravaggesque manner in seventeenth century Lorraine. His mature style is built almost entirely on candle-lit nocturnal scenes, with bold contrasts of light and dark, simplified geometric figures, and an unmistakable contemplative stillness.
Why was La Tour forgotten for so long?
The Thirty Years War devastated his native Lorraine in the 1630s, the dukes of Lorraine were expelled from their capitals, and after La Tour’s death his sons and pupils were dispersed. Without a workshop tradition to carry his name forward, and without a Parisian academy to keep his memory alive, his pictures were soon attributed to other Caravaggesque painters and his identity slowly vanished from the record. The rediscovery began only with Hermann Voss’s article of 1915.
Did La Tour paint only religious subjects?
No, he also painted a small number of secular night scenes, including the famous Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds at the Louvre and the Fortune Teller at the Metropolitan Museum. But the heart of his mature production is religious, and the great candle-lit nocturnal scenes of saints and biblical episodes form the core of his surviving corpus.
How does La Tour use candles in his paintings?
The single candle is the defining device of his late style. He uses it both as a source of pictorial light, organising the whole composition around its glow, and as a religious symbol of contemplation, faith, and the soul itself. The hand that shields the flame, a frequent motif in his work, has become one of the most studied gestures of seventeenth century European painting.
Where can I buy a canvas reproduction of a Georges de La Tour painting?
You can buy them at jesuschrist.pictures, in our shop: see all the canvas canvas prints, ready to hang, in several sizes.
