The Story
Saint Peter Repentant, 1645. Georges de La Tour (French, 1593–1652). Oil on canvas; framed: 140.3 x 119.1 x 7 cm (55 1/4 x 46 7/8 x 2 3/4 in.); unframed: 114 x 95 cm (44 7/8 x 37 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the Hanna Fund, 1951.454
Created in 1645 during the Baroque period, this work belongs firmly within the religion & mythology tradition. Georges de La Tour worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.
Executed in oil on canvas, measuring Framed: 140.3 x 119.1 x 7 cm (55 1/4 x 46 7/8 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 114 x 95 cm (44 7/8 x 37 3/8 in.), the surface rewards close looking. Georges de La Tour builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
