NONICTION

GEORGES DE LA TOUR by Jacques Thuillier (Flammarion: $90; 318 pp). A Lorraine artist, born in France in 1593, Georges de la Tour remains an enigma even though he is thought to have painted some 400-500 canvases. Only a scant 30 or so canvases are signed and another 50 or so canvases are attributed to him, some may be copies of original works by other artists and many are lost. And so might have De la Tour himself if it hadn’t been for a French scholar who published a brief study on him in 1863. In 1934 and 1948 French exhibits made abundantly clear his was the hand and eye of a great master. Thuillier clearly lays out in the extensive and scholarly text as much as he can about so obscure an artist of whom next to nothing can be found of in writings by his contemporaries; but of course, it is the portraiture of De la Tour that literally shines off the pages. The strong darks and lights, the serenity and stillness even when dealing with real characters, makes De la Tour’s distinctive vision a joy to behold, as full of mystery as the facts of his life and the existence of his oeuvre.