Georges de la Tour and 'The Dice Players'
Georges de la Tour (1593-1652) was born at Vic-sur-Seille in Lorraine and lived all his life in the nearby town of Luneville. He was very famous during his lifetime, and was patronised by King Louis XIII, but was completely forgotten after his death and his reputation was only resurrected during this century. De la Tour is now regarded as one of the greatest French artists of the seventeenth century, but very few pictures (only 29) are known and of these only two are in England- one in Stockton and one in the royal collection.
'The Dice Players' was discovered during a valuation of the museum's pictures by an expert, Christopher Wood, from Christie's. It was bequeathed to Stockton Borough Council, along with a number of other pictures, by Miss Annie Clephan in 1934. Mr. Wood sought the opinion of a leading authority on the works of Georges de la Tour, Benedict Nicholson. He wrote,
'This marvellous painting by Georges de la Tour, 'The Dice Players', which it is hardly an exaggeration to call a masterpiece, has just been identified in the collection of the Teesside County Borough. It was listed in an inventory of 1934 as a painting by 'De La Tour' and was exhibited as such at Rimswell, Bishopton Road, Fairfield in August 1944, but attracted not the slightest attention. It represents two young soldiers on either side of a table throwing dice, while a third looks on. To the left is an older man smoking a pipe, and on the far right a young girl- possibly the most beautiful figure in the whole composition, reminding one of Vermeer. The scene is shown by artificial light: the candle is half masked behind the helmeted soldier on the near side of the table, and the light from it is reflected on the faces of all the spectators.
Since it was known as 'De La Tour' in 1934 a signature on it must have been visible, because the author, Georges de la Tour, was hardly known then except to a small group of French and German connoisseurs, and his style would certainly not have been detected in Stockton. Indeed, when the cleaning was begun in London in January of this year [1972], the full signature of the artist came out on the table below the right hand of the boy in profile on the left.'
Shortly after it was cleaned the painting was shown at the Orangerie in Paris alongside many of de la Tour's other works.
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