28 April – 28 June 2009
Room 5 – Villanueva Building

Mary Magdalen, symbol of redemption through repentance, is depicted in a nocturnal setting, illuminated by the light of a candle that creates pronounced contrasts on her instruments of meditation: sacred texts, the cross and the skull, an emblem of death. Together these objects create one of Georges de La Tour’s most beautiful still lifes. The artist depicts the Magdalen as delicate and thus quite different to the rough, everyday nature of his rustic peasants, soldiers or street musicians who are far removed from the meditative, spiritual mood of this work.

Georges de La Tour (1593-1652)

A native of the Lorraine region, nothing is known of La Tour’s early training or whether or not he undertook the period of study in Italy that was normal for artists at this date. La Tour’s work reveals a direct or perhaps indirect knowledge of Caravaggio, both in its realistic treatment of humble characters and its use of light. La Tour may have acquired this knowledge in an undocumented trip to Rome through contact with the Dutch Caravaggisti such as Hendrick Terbrugghen or other French painters who made this trip. In 1639 he moved to Paris and became official Painter to Louis XIII. After his death he was gradually forgotten and his work was often confused with that of Spanish painters such as Zurbarán and Velázquez.

Georges de La Tour in the Museo del Prado

The Museo del Prado has the only two works by Georges de La Tour to be found in Spain: Old Man playing the Hurdy-gurdy (ca.1620-30) and Saint Jerome reading (ca.1627-29). Together they illustrate the key features of the artist’s daylight paintings. La Tour specialised in genre and religious compositions, peopled with socially humble types in everyday settings. His figures seem to be drawn from life, set against plain backgrounds and arranged with a simple, austere geometry. He appears to have painted for middle-class clients in the Lorraine region and for religious institutions.