In quiet awe: Georges de la Tour
Five conversations with Georges de La Tour.
Some artists ask to be understood and others simply ask us to stay a little longer.
For me, French baroque artist Georges de La Tour (1593-1652) belongs to the second kind. I don’t remember the first time I saw his painting, but I do remember the feeling that followed. A strange kind of silence that peaked my curiosity. Not an empty silence, but one that seemed almost tangible. Illuminated only by candlelight and quiet gestures.
These five pieces of art may not be his best according to some, but they are the ones I find myself returning to.
The first thing I notice is never the light, but the beautiful darkness. His paintings don’t fight against it. Instead, they allow it to exist and because of that, the smallest flame suddenly becomes monumental.
And then there’s the hands. The hands that comfort, reveal, conceal and heal. They guide and they pause. Long before I noticed the faces, I noticed what the hands were saying and that have stayed with me.
Even the moments that appear dramatic are painted with such remarkable restraint. There’s no urgency… no spectacle. Everything just unfolds quietly, almost as though we have entered the room without being noticed.
It fascinates me, simple as that.
Since I have a love for photography, I often think about how much that can be said without saying very much at all. The art of visual storytelling. A shadow. A gesture. A face turned away. Sometimes presence speaks louder than performance and these paintings remind me that mystery doesn’t have to be manufactured. Mystery often exists naturally whenever we leave space for the viewer to complete the story themselves.
Perhaps that’s why these paintings feel so contemporary despite being centuries old, to me at least. They never explain themselves. They simply invite us to look again.
Again.
And once more.
If you wish to learn more:
What We Fail to See | Georges de La Tour by Art in a Minute with Anne (video, 6min 42sek)
Other paintings I’ve written about:
An experiment on a bird
Quite a visit
Nick Alm
Ron Francis
Carl Vilhelm Holsøe
