The Story
The Fortune-Teller by Georges de La Tour. Rogers Fund, 1960
Created in 1639 during the Baroque period, this work belongs firmly within the daily life 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 40 1/8 x 48 5/8 in. (101.9 x 123.5 cm), 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.”
