Past Exhibition

Georges de La Tour and His World

A young woman with pale skin sits at a table in a darkened room in this vertical painting. Long chestnut-brown hair drapes over her shoulder and her deep, cream-colored, long-sleeved garment is open at her neck. She rests her chin in her right hand, farther from us, as her left reaches for a skull placed on a thick book on the table in front of her. The scene is lit by a single candle mostly out of sight behind the skull. Shown in profile, she looks into a small mirror next to the skull, which reflects that object and the book.
Georges de La Tour, The Repentant Magdalen, c. 1635/1640, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1974.52.1

Details

  • Dates

    -

  • Locations

    West Building, Main Floor, Galleries 72 through 77
A young woman with pale skin sits at a table in a darkened room in this vertical painting. Long chestnut-brown hair drapes over her shoulder and her deep, cream-colored, long-sleeved garment is open at her neck. She rests her chin in her right hand, farther from us, as her left reaches for a skull placed on a thick book on the table in front of her. The scene is lit by a single candle mostly out of sight behind the skull. Shown in profile, she looks into a small mirror next to the skull, which reflects that object and the book.
Georges de La Tour, The Repentant Magdalen, c. 1635/1640, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1974.52.1

Overview: 43 paintings and 3 engravings were on view by Georges de La Tour and his contemporaries, including Caravaggio, Jacques Bellange, Simon Vouet, Hendrick ter Brugghen, and others. The works, which included loans from public and private collections in Europe, the United States, and Japan, were selected to illustrate the place and meaning of La Tour's art in the context of early 17th-century culture.

An audio tour was narrated by Alan Shestack, deputy director of the Gallery, and Philip Conisbee, curator of French paintings.

Organization: The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art and the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth. Philip Conisbee was the exhibition curator.

Sponsor: The exhibition was made possible by Republic National Bank of New York, Safra Republic Holdings, S.A., and Banco Safra, S.A., Brazil. Additional support was provided by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Attendance: 139,911

Catalog: Georges de La Tour and His World, by Philip Conisbee et al. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1996.

Brochure: Georges de La Tour and His World, by Philip Conisbee. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1996.

Other Venues:

  • Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 02/02/1997–05/10/1997

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