Maurice Quentin de la Tour was a French portrait painter of the Rococo style, who worked primarily with pastels. Among his most famous subjects were Voltaire, Louis XV, and Madame de Pompadour. He was born in Saint-Quentin, Aisne, the son of a musician who disapproved of his painting career. At the age of fifteen, La Tour went to Paris where he entered the studio of the Flemish painter Jacques Spoede. He then went to Rheims in 1724, and England in 1725, returning to Paris to resume his studies around 1727. After his return to Paris, he began working with pastels. |
In 1746, he was received into the Academie Royale and in 1751 was promoted to councillor. La Tour was made portraitist to the king in 1750, a position he held until 1773, when he suffered a nervous breakdown. For a time, the painter Joseph Ducreux was his only student. He founded an art school and became a philanthropist before being confined to his home because of mental illness. He retired at the age of 80 to Saint-Quentin. |
The
director of the Instituto Cervantes, César Antonio
Molina, the director of the Museo del Prado, Miguel
Zugaza, and Professor José Milicua, a Trustee of the
Museum, today announced the discovery of a previously
unknown work by the French artist Georges de la Tour
(1593-1652).
The attribution was made by Professor Milicua, while the
painting belongs to the Spanish State and was on long
term deposit at the Palacio de la Trinidad, headquarters
of the Instituto Cervantes.
The discovery of the painting, now identified as
undoubtedly a work by La Tour depicting Saint Jerome
reading a Letter, is an exceptionally important one, as
it represents a further addition to the small corpus of
known works by the leading French painter of the 17th
century. Only one other work by La Tour is to be found
in Spain: the Blind Man playing the Hurdy-gurdy,
acquired by the Museo del Prado in 1991 with funds from
the Villaescusa Bequest.
The recently discovered painting of Saint Jerome reading
a Letter by Georges de la Tour depicts the saint
half-length, without any specific attributes, situated
in the centre of the composition and reading a letter,
holding a pair of pince-nez.
Given the lack of documentary evidence, the attribution
as argued in the report by Professor Milicua and the
opinion of other experts consulted - has been based on
the quality of handling, which is comparable to other
autograph works by the artist. It can be detected in
details such as the free brushwork of the hair and the
characteristic light touches to the picture surface made
with the point of the brush, as well through comparisons
with other similar compositions.
Until now, the only early biographical reference to
locate a work by La Tour in Spain is a reference by the
Count de Maule, a 19th-century traveler.
In 1813, the Count pointed to the existence of the
painting "Man blowing on an ember to light his pipe, by
Georges de la Tour" in the collection of Sebastián
Martínez, a collector and friend of Goya who lived in
Cadiz.
The whereabouts of that canvas is now unknown, although
a number of copies exist.
For this reason, the first and only work which has until
now filled the total gap in this great master's
representation in Spain is the painting acquired in
London by the Museo del Prado in 1991, once again
underlining the importance of the present discovery of
Saint Jerome reading a Letter.
Recognition of Georges de la Tour as one of the most
important French painters of the 17th century dates back
to 1915, when the great German connoisseur Hermann Voss
definitively identified De La Tour as the author of some
of his famous night scenes.
Since then, various exhibitions and a recent
bibliography have added to and disseminated our
knowledge of the artist's oeuvre. The only exhibition to
have been devoted to De La Tour in Spain was the one
held in 1994 at the Museo del Prado, which reunited the
series of "Musicians", with a catalogue by Juan J. Luna,
Curator at the Museum.
Georges de La Tour was born in Vic sur la Seille
(Lorraine) in 1593 and died in Lunéville (Lorraine) in
1652. He is known to have been "painter in ordinary" to
the King of France and to have received commissions from
the Duke of Lorraine as well as other leading members of
the regional aristocracy, but the high esteem in which
he was held during his lifetime soon declined after his
death.
For this reason, there is little secure information with
regard to his artistic training, although his evident
early absorption of elements of Caravaggio's style may
point to a possible study trip to Italy. On the other
hand, he may have gained this knowledge in Flanders or,
less probably, in Paris. |
