''The Fortune Teller'' is an

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest ...

of circa 1630 by the French artist

Georges de La Tour Georges de La Tour (13 March 1593 – 30 January 1652) was a French Baroque painter, who spent most of his working life in the Duchy of Lorraine, which was temporarily absorbed into France between 1641 and 1648. He painted mostly religious chia ...

. The work was uncovered in about 1960 and purchased that year by the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York. François Georges Pariset described the painting in ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'', attributing it to La Tour—a likely choice given the calligraphic signature at top right: "G. de La Tour Fecit Luneuilla Lothar" ("G

orges Orges is a municipality in the district of Jura-Nord Vaudois of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. History Orges is first mentioned in 1260 as ''Orses''. The country estate of Longeville is first mentioned in 1261 as ''Longavilla''. Geography ...

de La Tour made this,

Lunéville Lunéville ( ; German, obsolete: ''Lünstadt'' ) is a commune in the northeastern French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle. It is a subprefecture of the department and lies on the river Meurthe at its confluence with the Vezouze. History L ...

Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gra ...

"). Its authenticity has been questioned in the intervening years, notably by the English art historian Christopher Wright, but ''The Fortune Teller'' is generally accepted as La Tour's work. The artist is better known for his

chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...

religious compositions, in which the figures are illuminated by a single light source and lack the elaborate costume detail of ''The Fortune Teller's'' characters. The painting catches a moment in which a young man of some wealth is having his fortune told by the old woman at right; she takes the coin from his hand, not only in payment, but as part of the ritual in which she will cross his hand with it. Most or all of the women portrayed are

gypsies The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...

, and, furthering the stereotype of the time, they are depicted as thieves. As the young man is engrossed in the fortune-telling—an act which, if discovered, would have repercussions for both him and the gypsies—the leftmost woman is stealing the coin purse from his pocket, while her companion in profile has a hand ready to receive the loot. The pale-faced girl on the boy's left is less clearly a gypsy, but is also in on the act as she cuts a medal worn by the boy from its chain. The figures in the painting are close together, as if in a play, and the composition may have been influenced by a theatrical scene. The modern discovery of the painting is said to be traced to a French prisoner of war who viewed La Tour's works in a monograph and found a likeness with a painting hung in a relative's castle. A knowledgeable priest identified it as a La Tour work and informed the Louvre, which entered negotiations to buy the painting. The art dealer

Georges Wildenstein Georges Wildenstein (16 March 1892 – 11 June 1963) was a French gallery owner, art dealer, art collector, editor and art historian. Life Georges' father was Nathan Wildenstein, who came from a family of Jewish cattle-dealers but had in 1870 l ...

outbid the museum, however, purchasing the painting in 1949 for 7.5 million

franc The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centu ...

s. For a decade it remained with the dealer, until in 1960 the

paid an undisclosed but "very high sum of money" for ''The Fortune Teller''. How the painting had been able to leave France became a matter of controversy in the French press, and the writer

André Malraux Georges André Malraux ( , ; 3 November 1901 – 23 November 1976) was a French novelist, art theorist, and Minister of Culture (France), minister of cultural affairs. Malraux's novel ''La Condition Humaine'' (Man's Fate) (1933) won the Prix Go ...

, then French Minister of Culture, attempted to explain to the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the r ...

why the work did not end up in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...

. It later emerged that the export licence was signed by the art historian Germain Bazin, who was head of

old master In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

paintings at the Louvre; Wright speculates that he had sufficient doubt about the work not to want it for the Louvre.

Accusations of forgery

Georges de La Tour - The Cheat with the Ace of Clubs - Google Art Project

La Tour was hardly known until the beginning of the 20th century, but became extremely highly regarded from the 1920s onwards. A large number of the paintings now attributed to La Tour have surfaced from obscurity, like the Metropolitan work, since he became well-known, and have become valuable. Many were in collections with a

provenance Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses i ...

going back to the 19th century or beyond, but others first appeared in the hands of dealers, and some have always been the subject of suspicion. The English art historian Christopher Wright published ''The Art of the Forger'' in 1984, a book whose central claim is that the Metropolitan ''Fortune Teller'', along with other works attributed to La Tour, is actually a

forgery Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud anyone (other than themself). Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forb ...

of the 1920s by the artist and restorer Emile Delobre (1873–1956). Wright says that the central girl's dress parodies De la Tour's mother in "The Newborn" (Rennes), suggesting a satire more typical of 20th-century than 17th-century humour. The painting is related to a work called '' The Cheat'', which exists in two different versions: one in the Louvre and one in the

Kimbell Art Museum The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, hosts an art collection as well as traveling art exhibitions, educational programs and an extensive research library. Its initial artwork came from the private collection of Kay and Velma Kimbell, wh ...

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the List of cities in Texas by population, fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the List of United States cities by population, 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, T ...

. ''The Cheat'' shows a group playing cards, where a young dandy is being cheated, and shares the interest in costume of ''The Fortune Teller''. After lengthy analysis of X-ray photographs, details of the costume, and stylistic comparisons with other works, Wright concludes that of the three, only the Fort Worth ''Cheat'' is genuine. Among his evidence is a claim that the word "MERDE" (French for "shit") could be seen in the lace collar of the young woman second from left.

Anthony Blunt Anthony Frederick Blunt (26 September 1907 – 26 March 1983), styled Sir Anthony Blunt KCVO from 1956 to November 1979, was a leading British art historian and Soviet spy. Blunt was professor of art history at the University of London, dire ...

and others denied this, but in a letter of 1981 to ''

The Burlington Magazine ''The Burlington Magazine'' is a monthly publication that covers the fine and decorative arts of all periods. Established in 1903, it is the longest running art journal in the English language. It has been published by a charitable organisation si ...

'' rebutting Wright's claims, two members of the Metropolitan curatorial staff accepted that the word was there, regarding it as the work of a recent restorer, and it was then removed in 1982. Among those who joined Wright in his concerns were Diana de Marly,

Benedict Nicolson Lionel Benedict Nicolson (6 August 1914 – 22 May 1978) was a British art historian and author. Nicolson was the elder son of authors Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West and the brother of writer and politician Nigel. His godmothers ...

, editor of the ''Burlington Magazine'', and

Brian Sewell Brian Alfred Christopher Bushell Sewell (; 15 July 1931 – 19 September 2015) was an English art critic. He wrote for the ''Evening Standard'' and had an acerbic view of conceptual art and the Turner Prize. ''The Guardian'' described him as " ...

On tour

During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the Met began a skylight replacement project that resulted in gallery closures; in response the museum loaned major works from the European collection, including 'The Fortune Teller', to the

Queensland Gallery of Modern Art The Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) is an art museum located within the Queensland Cultural Centre in the South Bank precinct of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. GOMA, which opened on 2 December 2006, is the largest ...

in an exhibition titled ‘European Masterpieces’.

Notes

References

* Hagan, R.-M., Galbraith, I., & Hagen, R. (1995). ''What great paintings say: old masters in detail.'' Köln:

Taschen Taschen is a luxury art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. As of January 2017, Taschen is co-managed by Benedikt and his eldest daughter, Marlene Taschen. History The company began as Taschen Comics, ...

. * Pariset, Francois Georges (March 1961). "A Newly Discovered La Tour: The Fortune Teller." ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series''. 19(7), 198–205. *Wright, Christopher. ''The Art of the Forger'', 1984, Gordon Fraser, London. {{DEFAULTSORT:Fortune Teller Paintings in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 1630 paintings Paintings by Georges de La Tour

Accusations of forgery

On tour

See also

Notes

References