Magdalene with Smoking Flame. Magdalene with the Smoking Flame is a 1640 oil-on-canvas depiction of Mary Magdalene by French Baroque painter Georges de La Tour.
Two versions of this painting exist, one in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the other in the Louvre Museum. The Louvre version of the painting was bought in 1949 from the French Administration des Douanes.
In the somewhat uncertain chronology of Georges de La Tour's work, this painting has been allotted the date of 1640, by analogy with the Saint Mary with a Mirror, which has been dated between 1635 and 1645. The location of this painting before 1949 is unknown.
Georges de la Tour was a Catholic Baroque artist with a successful career, despite the fact that he was working at an unsettling time of religious wars and the violence that followed. He learned many tricks from Caravaggio such as tenebrism, an especially dramatic contrast between light and shadow.
Like Caravaggio, in Georges de la Tour's younger days he was interested in low-life disreputable scenes of hoaxers, thieves, and swindlers. Unlike Caravaggio, Georges de la Tour was not violent or a murderer. His artwork is known to be thoughtful, genuine, and sincere. He painted many versions of the Magdalene, which suggests that several of his patrons were interested in this theme. Throughout his Magdalene series he demonstrates small changes in lightning, pose, and symbolism. Although
Two versions of this painting exist, one in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the other in the Louvre Museum. The Louvre version of the painting was bought in 1949 from the French Administration des Douanes.
In the somewhat uncertain chronology of Georges de La Tour's work, this painting has been allotted the date of 1640, by analogy with the Saint Mary with a Mirror, which has been dated between 1635 and 1645. The location of this painting before 1949 is unknown.
Georges de la Tour was a Catholic Baroque artist with a successful career, despite the fact that he was working at an unsettling time of religious wars and the violence that followed. He learned many tricks from Caravaggio such as tenebrism, an especially dramatic contrast between light and shadow.
Like Caravaggio, in Georges de la Tour's younger days he was interested in low-life disreputable scenes of hoaxers, thieves, and swindlers. Unlike Caravaggio, Georges de la Tour was not violent or a murderer. His artwork is known to be thoughtful, genuine, and sincere. He painted many versions of the Magdalene, which suggests that several of his patrons were interested in this theme. Throughout his Magdalene series he demonstrates small changes in lightning, pose, and symbolism. Although
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