\paperw19995 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 French painter. \par
Georges de La Tour was born in 1593 at Vic, a village in Lorraine, the son of a baker. Nothing is know
n of the artistÆs training. The Caravaggesque character of his painting has led several critics to suggest a journey to Italy, made by the painter in the early years of his career. Marrying a girl from the local minor nobility in 1618, La Tour moved to L
unΘville in 1620, a town in Lorraine, where he received prestigious commissions from Duke Henry II and the dignitaries of the court which allowed him to lead a very comfortable life. The war between the Empire and France, plague and famine probably induc
ed La Tour to leave LunΘville between 1636 and 1643 and move to Paris, where he is recorded as painter to King Louis XIII. Vain and quick-tempered, at least judging by the surviving documents, the artsist is recorded as having returned to Lorraine in 164
4 and remained there until his death, in 1652. The majority of the works known to us today date from this second period in Lorraine, and some of them may have been painted in collaboration with his son Etienne. Among his signed and dated pictures are the
ones representing \i Saint\i0 \i Alexis\i0 , from 1648, (Nancy, MusΘe des Beaux-Arts) and the \i Denial\i0 of \i Saint\i0 \i Peter \i0 (Nantes, MusΘe des Beaux-Arts), from 1650. Over the same period he also painted the canvas depicting \i Saint\i0
\i Sebastian and the Penitent Magdalen\i0 (Paris, Louvre), while the picture of the \i Cardsharp\i0 (Paris, Louvre) may date from as early as the 1630s.
