Georges De La Tour

A fascinating analysis of the styles, techniques, and subjects in which de La Tour worked introduces the master of the nocturnes to a general audience. Georges de La Tour played a particular role in the history of art. Although today he is recognized as one of the most celebrated and beloved French painters, after his death in 1652 he sank into complete oblivion. Three centuries had to pass before historians rediscovered him. Then, little by little, from 1915 onwards, scholars reconstructed his works, his career, and his life. Starting out from an analysis of two of the artist’s masterpieces, St. Joseph the Carpenter and The Adoration of the Shepherds, and through a series of well illustrated and accessible essays, rich in information and historical references, some of the greatest international historians and art historians cover almost his entire output, models, and sources of inspiration, as well as his iconography and technique.

Valeria Merlini and Daniela Storti are art historians and renowned restorers. Dimitri Salmon is an art historian and author of numerous volumes and articles on Georges de La Tour and seventeenth-century French art.