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Video: The mysterious history of the painting, which was learned only 300 after its creation: "The Fortune Teller" de Latour
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Georges de Latour (1593 - 1652) was a French Baroque painter who spent most of his artistic career in the Duchy of Lorraine. There he also managed to paint an interesting picture "The Fortune Teller". It is interesting not only for the abundance of metaphorical messages, but also for the mysterious story of its discovery. The work was discovered in a French castle only 300 years after it was written. Where was she before, and what plots do art critics see in her?
Biography of de Latour
The French Baroque painter Georges de Latour was born in Vic-sur-Sueil, France. In 1620, already a practicing artist, he moved to Lorraine (an independent duchy between northeastern France and the German states). Until 1915, until Hermann Voss saved him from oblivion, the life and work of de Latour were not so famous. Even now, very little documentary information about the life and education of the artist has been preserved. His paintings bear a noticeable influence of Caravaggio. But, unlike the genius of the Baroque, de Latour's religious paintings are devoid of typical drama.
Vitale Bloch wrote about him: “The content of his paintings is ambiguous. De Latour's interpretation of "caravaggism" seems too light-hearted and somewhat capricious, his sense of truthfulness is fragile, his presentation and vision tend to archaic with some admixture of mannerist habits. Although to the modern viewer, his paintings may seem impressive, "modern" and, if this expression is preferable, cubist, their plastic meaning is more striking and sophisticated than convincing. To us, de Latour seems to be a very gifted amateur, uneven in his skill, at times naive, and sometimes prone to affectation. " (Vitale Bloch, “Once More Georges de Latour,” The Burlington Magazine, Volume 96, March 1954).
It is believed that over the 30 years of his career, de Latour wrote about 40 paintings. He painted mainly religious scenes lit by candles. He specialized in Chiaroscuro compositions, using sharp contrasts between light and darkness. Some of the Baroque master's works may have been painted by his son Etienne. In the work of de Latour there are significant problems with the attribution of paintings. One of these is considered the work "The Fortune Teller", written in the 1630s.
Fortune Teller
This 17th-century painting depicts an eerie scene: a fortune teller and three liars rob a young man. Divination is considered part of a religious ritual to summon deities or spirits. Historically, divination came from ancient folklore and Renaissance magic associated with the gypsies. In the 19th and 20th centuries, divination techniques from non-Western cultures were also adopted for divination in Western pop culture. But in Christianity, Islam and Judaism there is a ban on fortune telling. So. In the picture under consideration, the viewer sees a young man. He is well dressed and gives the impression that he is also rich and is ideal as a "prey" for crooks.
The guy's attention is completely occupied by an old woman with wrinkled skin, who offered to read fortunes in his palm and asked for a silver coin for this service. The naive young man is completely unaware that the girl to his right is taking his wallet out of his pocket. However, this is not all that a young person can lose. A young woman stands between the old fortune teller and the young man. She is dressed more discreetly. But what does she do? The cunning heroine is about to cut the gold medallion from the chain around her neck. It's amazing how she looks at the guy's face, trying to figure out if he is aware of what she is doing.
De Latour's painting can be interpreted as a genre or theatrical scene. Perhaps the artist borrowed a scene from the play. Some art critics see in the picture a hint of the parable of the prodigal son. The third version is no less interesting: since more often in fortune telling, questions related to love are asked, it is possible to consider this picture as a two-dimensional metaphor of a young man's personal life.
The heroines surrounding the young man are colorfully dressed, impersonate gypsies and belong to different social groups. They probably metaphorically represent the future love affairs of a man, which seem to lead to the same outcome: his women will always be attracted by status and wealth. This is the result of de Latour's so-called "fortune-telling". The inscription on the painting includes the name of the city where de Latour lived (Luneville in Lorraine).
Mysterious discovery
Curiously, the public did not see the painting until 1960. The history of its discovery is mysterious. There is information that in 1942 a monograph on the work of de Latour fell into the hands of a French prisoner of war. The reproductions in the book reminded him of a painting he saw in his uncle's castle. When the war ended, he instructed the priest to examine the canvas, and he, deciding that it was the real de Latour, contacted the Louvre. Then secret negotiations were held. Art dealer Georges Wildenstein beat the Louvre's price and in 1949 bought the work for 7.5 million francs. The painting remained in his possession for the next ten years, until the Metropolitan Museum acquired it in 1960. Due to its relatively unknown origin, the painting was at some point declared a 19th century fake. However, this was later discredited by Pierre Rosenberg, who said: "… it is inconceivable that a counterfeiter would write a fake de Latour in the 19th century."
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