How to Read Paintings: The Fortune Teller by Georges de La Tour

A brilliant sting in more ways than one

The Fortune Teller (c.1630s) by Georges de La Tour. Oil on canvas. 101.9 × 123.5 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, U.S. Image source The Met (public domain)

There are so many noteworthy things about this painting, it’s hard to know where to begin.

Thought to have been made by the French artist Georges de La Tour in around 1630, the painting is from the early part of his career — before he turned his brush to his more…