Georges de La Tour — Entre ombre et lumière — Musée Jacquemart-André — Exhibition — Slash Paris

In about 2 months: Thursday, September 11, 2025

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, luminous work of one of the greatest French painters of the 17th century.

Following the success of its exhibitions featuring Caravaggio (2018) and Artemisia Gentileschi (2025), the Musée Jacquemart-André is continuing its exploration of the masters influenced by the Caravaggio revolution by showcasing the work of 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 will offer a new interpretation of Georges de La Tour’s career, attempting to shed light on the questions that still surround both his work and the path he followed. Despite the scarcity of surviving originals, the art of Georges de La Tour has left a profound mark on the history of art. Through his subtle naturalism, and the spiritual intensity and purity of form in his compositions, he created a pictorial language of great emotional power that has endured for centuries. This exhibition will therefore provide an opportunity to rediscover one of the most fascinating artists of the « Grand Siècle », in all the richness and complexity of his work.

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 Georges de La Tour’s originality. The exhibition route will explore his favourite subjects — genre scenes, figures of penitent saints, artificial lighting effects — whilst placing his life and work in the wider context of European Caravaggism, particularly the influence of the French, Lorraine and Dutch Caravaggists.

Rather than being a direct imitation of the lessons of Caravaggio, the uniqueness of La Tour’s work lies in his personal interpretation of chiaroscuro, nourished by a radical realism and an intense spirituality that give his compositions a timeless modernity.