PARIS.- From 11 September 2025 to 25 January 2026, the Musée Jacquemart-André is devoting a brand new exhibition to Georges de La Tour (1593-1652), offering a fresh look at the rare and luminous work of one of the greatest French painters of the 17th century.

Following the success of its exhibitions devoted to Caravaggio (2018) and Artemisia Gentileschi (2025), the Musée Jacquemart- André is continuing its exploration of the masters influenced by the Caravaggio revolution by honouring Georges de La Tour (1593-1652). This retrospective will be the first devoted to the artist in France since the historic exhibition at the Grand Palais in 1997.

The exhibition at the Musée Jacquemart-André takes a fresh look at the career of Georges de La Tour, attempting to shed light on the questions that still surround his work and his career. Despite the rarity of the originals that have come down to us, the art of Georges de La Tour has left a profound mark on the history of art. Through his subtle naturalism, the formal purity of his compositions and their spiritual intensity, he created a pictorial language of great emotional power that has endured for centuries. This exhibition is an opportunity to rediscover one of the most fascinating artists of the Grand Siècle, in all the richness and complexity of his work.

Born in Vic-sur-Seille, in the independent Duchy of Lorraine, Georges de La Tour had a brilliant career, working for prestigious patrons and collectors such as the Dukes of Lorraine and Cardinal Richelieu, and as ordinary painter to King Louis XIII. In the violent context of the Thirty Years’ War, his house and studio in Lunéville were destroyed in 1638, and Georges de La Tour chose to move closer to Paris and to the powers that be: he offered King Louis XIII a nocturnal painting of Saint Sebastian (now lost), which the sovereign is said to have appreciated so much that he had all the other paintings removed from his room and kept only this one.

Despite his fame and success during his lifetime, Georges de La Tour fell into oblivion after his death in 1652. It was not until the 1910s and the inter-war years that his work was rediscovered by art historians, allowing him, almost three centuries after his death, to regain his rightful place among the greatest French painters of the 17th century.

Although only around forty authentic works by the painter are known today, numerous copies attest to the fame of his paintings and the importance of his studio.

Bringing together some thirty paintings and graphic works on loan from French and foreign public and private collections, the exhibition adopts a thematic approach designed to capture the originality of Georges de La Tour. The exhibition explores his favourite subjects - genre scenes, figures of penitent saints, effects of artificial light - while placing his life and work in the wider context of European Caravaggism, particularly the influence of the French, Lorraine and Dutch Caravaggists. Rather than directly imitating Caravaggio’s teachings, Georges de La Tour forged a distinctive style through his own interpretation of chiaroscuro, shaped by austere realism and profound spirituality that lend his compositions a timeless modernity.

Among the highlights of the exhibition, the gambling scenes illustrate his attraction to Caravaggesque subjects.

The Dice Players from the Preston Park Museum and the Denial of Saint Peter from the Musée d’Art de Nantes bear witness to his talent for orchestrating gestures and gazes in a silent drama.

Another theme dear to the painter, the character of the blind musician, is depicted in several versions (including those preserved in Remiremont and Bergues). This subject is part of a Lorraine tradition also illustrated by Jacques Callot and Jacques Bellange. Georges de La Tour humanised marginalised figures, giving them great dignity by monumentalising them. These popular figures also include the Old Man and Old Woman from the Museum of Fine Arts, San Francisco.

The exhibition also includes several busts of saints, notably from a group representing Christ and the Apostles from Albi Cathedral. Scattered around the world, these works reveal Georges de La Tour’s unique ability to breathe life and spirituality into his models. Finally, there are some famous works of night scenes lit by candlelight - including the Newborn Child (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes), Job Mocked by His Wife (Musée départemental d’Épinal), Woman Catching a Flea (Nancy, Musée Lorrain), Saint Peter Repentant (The Cleveland Museum of Art) and The Repentant Magdalene (Washington, National Gallery of Art). These stripped-down compositions, in which light becomes a vehicle for transcendence, are among the most powerful in the work of Georges de La Tour.