George de la tour biography of martin

Georges de La Tour - paintings. Georges de La Tour Biography La Tour was a French painter of religious and genre subjects, best known for his night scene paintings of dark interiors illuminated by candlelight. La Tour has gathered a group of five sympathetically observed worshippers around the Christ Child, who seems to radiate more light than he can possibly simply reflect from the candle held by Joseph.

This last detail is significant. As Falcucci and Rinaldi explain, "while Caravaggio tended to emphasize the sculptural qualities of his subjects by painting them before he painted the background, which he then darkened depending on what was needed, always being sure not to let the background and the subject come into pictorial contact with each other, La Tour made very distinct borders between the background colours, which he then painted independently so that the figures were transformed into shapes applied to the background, with no dialectical rapport between the two".

There is little information about the early life of Georges de La Tour, and without a surviving self-portrait assuming he had painted one , we do not even have an image of the artist. All that is known rumors that he was arrogant and unpopular with his neighbors notwithstanding is that he was the second of seven children, born in Vic-sur-Seille Vic , a large market town in the independent duchy of Lorraine now part of north-eastern France.

His father, Jean de La Tour, was a baker, his mother, also from a family of bakers, was named Sybille de Crospaux. His baptismal certificate was registered in Vic on 14 March That La Tour must have had an early interest in art can be assumed given that in the seventeenth century one would not have been accepted into a workshop to study unless he or she had already demonstrated a nascent talent.

Art historian Gail Feigenbaum suggests that "His apprenticeship likely began around , perhaps in Vic with Alphonse de Rambervilliers, a writer and amateur engraver close to the bishop of Metz, and he very likely worked in Nancy with the painter, etcher, and draftsman Jacques Bellange". Authors Claudio Falcucci and Simona Rinaldi have also conjectured that La Tour "received his artistic education in the workshop of the Swiss painter Claude Dogoz, who was working in the lively Lorraine area at the time".

And while little is known about his religious upbringing, Feigenbaum observes that his devotional paintings, such as The Repentant Magdalen c. The influence of the Italian Baroque style , especially in the dark and dramatic backgrounds of Caravaggio La Tour was still a teenager when the archetypal artistic rebel died, or was killed , begs the question: where would the artist have seen and studied such paintings?

As Feigenbaum writes, "there has been much unresolved discussion about a possible trip to Rome". La Tour had begun painting with Dogoz and it is thought that he could have travelled to Italy with Dogoz between , where he discovered the paintings of Caravaggio. Feigenbaum acknowledges that "La Tour's low-life subjects and his bold tenebrist manner of painting seem to be heavily indebted to the work of Caravaggio [ But Caravaggio's influence was spreading throughout Europe in the second decade of the century so it was by no means necessary for La Tour to have made an Italian trip".

Indeed, Gerrit van Honthorst and Dirck van Baburen were working in the Baroque style in Utrecht, while in Lorraine, Jacques Bellange and Jean Leclerc were both exploring the dramatic potential for tenebrist lighting effects. La Tour was married to Diane Le Nerf, a woman of status and wealth, in La Tour gave his profession as painter on the marriage certificate.

Her family were silversmiths and her father served as the minister of finance to the Duke of Lorraine. The couple were parents to a total of nine or ten children, although only three would reach adulthood, including their son, Etienne, who was officially ennobled as a painter in The La Tours lived through a time of great uncertainty. As historian Gabriel Diss states, "La Tour needed great determination and unflinching energy not to be crushed by the incursions of armed rabble, the hordes of poverty-stricken refugees, the state of famine and the plague that struck Lorraine three times, in , , and The records show that he performed his duties with fairness and clear-sightedness".

Despite his close friendship with the Duke of Lorraine, La Tour now pledged his loyalty to the French. He made such an impression in this role that he was granted permission to set up a living space in the Louvre a year later. Once Lorraine became secure again now under control of the French La Tour was able to return home with his family. He produced religious and domestic scenes, both genres of which were popular throughout Europe.

According to author Philip Conisbee, "La Tour conducted his artistic affairs in a solidly professional way: there were contracts, agreements, and schedules of payment. We know that he ran a small studio [and engaged apprentices] who helped out in the day-to-day running of his business and learned at least the rudiments of art from him. He [also] presumably trained his son Etienne".

It was also during this period that his nocturne paintings became popular. Anchored in the Baroque style, it was through his nocturnes that La Tour distinguished himself among his peers in the subtle way he used light to dramatize the actions of his subjects. His religious paintings done in this manner have a monumental simplicity and a stillness that expresses both contemplative quiet and wonder".

Tragically, the plague that swept through Europe in the s ravaged Lorraine and it is believed to have been the cause of La Tour's wife's death in What wider success La Tour might have achieved will remain unknown as this epidemic, a possibly a deep sense of grief, most likely claimed the artist's life only two weeks after his wife's passing.

La Tour was fifty-eight years old. According to the author Dimitri Salmon, "La Tour's works were seldom copied in engravings and hence little known, nor did he have a biographer to record his life for posterity. Finally, Lorraine was constantly devasted by war for three centuries, and with it not only the painter's workshop but also the churches, monasteries, castles and mansions where his paintings hung".

It wasn't until the early twentieth century that art historians began to examine La Tour's work through a contemporary lens, beginning in through the writings of art historian Hermann Voss.

George de la tour biography of martin

Calling his art "one of the great rediscoveries of the 20 th century", the historian Susan Moore states, "Today it seems inconceivable that this most compelling and singular of artists, highly successful in his day, should have been almost entirely forgotten for three centuries. La Tour's work has had a profound influence on subsequent generations of artists.

As Salmon states, "it is the fame of these works which is taken to task by the artists of the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first century as much as their beauty and the interest they arouse. Content compiled and written by Jessica DiPalma. Edited and revised, with Summary and Accomplishments added by Antony Todd. The choice of Diana pushing the idea that by Latour has made certain progress in painting, became known as the artist, otherwise such a marriage is unlikely to take place.

But what of the artist's paintings were already written by this point, is not known. None of the paintings of Latour still does not have an exact date. The first two or three years the couple, according to the custom of the time, lived in his parents ' home Latour. And during this time, Latour buried my father, and baptized his first child Philip, and his uspremniku godparents were nobles.

In it, Latour notifies you that it is a simple painter from Vic, married a noble girl from Luneville, and "Smarandache requested his Majesty" to take Latour to the service, as in all the County, except him, no artists and restorers by profession. Of course, Latour's letter, the experts considered almost under the microscope again the only written evidence of genius.

It is written in calligraphic handwriting and with full respect for the rules of spelling, which undoubtedly tells on the education of the artist. In the same letter, Latour offers us being prudent and practical. Referring to the nobility of his art, he dares to ask the Duke for exemption from taxes and other duties, and ruler of Lorraine petition Latour accepts graciously.

The young family moved to Luneville, and even buys a house with a spacious room for workshop. Henry II had intended to build in Luneville another residence, and even thought to move the capital of the Duchy. For Latour, this meant the emergence of a vast field of activity for design of a new Palace. Apparently, this is the best time in the fate of Latour.

His work is in demand. His family is growing: almost every year Latyrov addition. Famous painting "Newborn" shakes the extraordinary accuracy with which is written the child. There's no blissful picturesque idealization of the baby, and often talk about realistic revolution Latour. But the simplest explanation is, perhaps, the most correct: Latour was the father of ten children.

He should know looks like a human child immediately after birth? Latour opens his workshop, and from all parts of Lorraine rush there to aspiring artists hoping to learn from his experience. The flow was so great that Latour limited the acceptance, assigning the tuition exorbitant francs recall that exactly the same once was a noble dowry of his wife.

Another version with Diamonds and slightly different clothes is in the Louvre. The Hurdy-Gurdy Player , c. Portrait of an Old Man , c. Portrait of an Old Woman , c. See also [ edit ]. Notes [ edit ]. Retrieved 18 May References [ edit ]. External links [ edit ]. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Georges de La Tour. Georges de La Tour.

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