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| Georges de La Tour The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds ca. 1635 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
The Reappearance of a Painter
Georges de La Tour was, by report, the favorite painter of Louis XIII, but then fell, with the passage of time, into complete obscurity. Only at the beginning of the 20th century did specialists succeed in reconstructing his œuvre.
He is principally celebrated today for pictures featuring candles. This specific illumination very cleanly divides depicted figures into areas of shadow and light, a technique directly inherited from Caravaggio. But although in works by the latter this violent formal treatment generally serves to underline a violent subject, in those of La Tour, as in many Caravaggists of northern Europe, the same effect militates toward softness, inducing reflection and meditation.
Today we are aware that the artist also produced numerous genre scenes where the lighting, though apparently artificial, seeks to rival the light of day as it shines full on the protagonists. Thus, in The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds, a harsh light is directed from a source in front of the canvas, detaching each figure sharply from the all-black background.
The Underside of Cards
Two autograph replicas of this painting exist, with variations in the details. In the present work, the card that the cheater means to substitute and those in his hand are diamonds, while the other versions show them as clubs. The shift is thus made from black to red. Considering the fact that the concealed card will inevitably attract the viewer's keenest attention, it can be thought to function as the chromatic version of a key signature in music: we find ourselves in Red Major or in Black Minor.
The angle of view lets the artist reveal to us what generally remains hidden, as well as the means used to hide it. We watch the cheater extracting the crucial card from his belt. His face tilts toward us and seems to ask for our connivance, as if to say, "Just look what I'm about to do!"
That which is meant to remain cloaked in darkness is brutally revealed in order to amuse us with the skill of the trick, but even more to put us on guard. This is the bright light of a moral theater, no doubt manufactured in the studio with the aid of several mirrors.
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| Georges de La Tour The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds (detail) ca. 1635 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
The Glass of Wine
The cheat has two accomplices, the woman at center – definitely a high-quality prostitute – and her servant. The play of glances allows us to understand that these three are collaborators. The youth at right, no doubt a noble, luxuriously dressed, is the intended dupe. Absorbed in the game, he notices neither the conspiratorial looks exchanged by the others nor the imminent substitution of cards. Several gold pieces on the table tell us the stakes are high. A hush envelopes the group.
The arrival of the maid, who brings a glass of wine for the young man, is meant to distract him at the crucial moment. Since she holds the glass by its base, she won't be able to set it down, which will require him to take it from her and also most likely to drink it there and then, and this in its turn will permit the cheat safely to retrieve the fatal ace.
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| Georges de La Tour The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds (detail) ca. 1635 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
– translated and adapted from Le Musée imaginaire de Michel Butor: 105 œuvres décisives de la peinture occidentale (Paris: Flammarion, 2019)