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Georges de La Tour challenges you to spot the differences between his almost identical paintings!

Georges de La Tour was born in the Duchy of Lorraine and during his life saw Lorraine conquered by France. He did spend some time in Paris, for a while even having an apartment in the Louvre, but preferred the quiet of Lorraine. The country boy preferred his moody solitude and kept out of city drama – perhaps why he’s such a bore! Unfortunately, his home city of Lorraine had a massive fire in 1638 where much of his early work went up in smoke.

He is most known for his highly contrasted light and dark night scenes influenced by the chiaroscuro of Caravaggio. Kind of like those bad studio pictures from Wal-Mart. But, all jokes aside, de la Tour actually makes it quite beautiful. Don’t be as confused with his paintings as the internet is. He painted multiple variations of a few paintings that are nearly identical. You can play that newspaper game 'spot the difference.' For example The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds and The Cheat with the Ace of Clubs, unfortunately the title gives it away and makes it no challenge at all.

Sadly, with an epidemic in 1653 so died de la Tour and his fame as a painter; at least until the modern era, when he was rediscovered with his 20 or so remaining paintings.  

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Here is what Wikipedia says about Georges de La Tour


Joseph the Carpenter, 1642, Louvre.

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 chiaroscuro scenes lit by candlelight.

Check out the full Wikipedia article about Georges de La Tour