The Fortune Teller (de La Tour)
The Fortune Teller is a painting by the French Baroque painter Georges de la Tour. It was probably built 1630-1639.
Background
The picture that was not discovered until the mid-20th century as a work of this largely unknown painter and had sold in 1960 to the dismay of the French public secretly at the Metropolitan Museum in New York art dealer Georges Wildenstein, who had outbid the Louvre in Paris, belongs to the " Tags pitfalls " of the painter; it shows a " scene from the picaresque life ". The authenticity of the picture however, has been questioned repeatedly. While some point to the similarities with La Tour's paintings on the false game with cards, others are taken aback at the fact that a person depicted, the second girl from the left in the picture, the scarf, the dirty word " Merde " (French "Shit " ) had been woven into it. As suspected subsequently added, this word was removed in 1982 as part of a cleansing of the image.
The painting
The picture shows a fresh-faced young man is tightly surrounded by a group of women, with one exception, these a dark complexion, which suggests as gypsies on their origin. The old right offers to the young man to read it from his hand, she holds a coin in his hand (presumably you paid), with whom she, as was customary, will propose a cross over his open hand before the start of divination. She talks to him, distracts him, meanwhile, the fair-skinned woman with a pair of pliers pinch off a gold medallion from his chain.
The girl on the far left standing is going to steal from him, her hand goes to the pocket of the young man. It is not credulity, which is exploited, because the view of the young man and his abducted elbows, with whom he wants to make larger and stockier, demonstrating skepticism and uncertainty. But he is the victim of a boundless naivete, he allows that the thieves have an easy time. The Fair-skinned among them stands out particularly in the eye: you do not really fit into the picture, their complicity with the other women is interpreted as a reference to the then widely held view, gypsies would kidnap white-skinned children, raise their families and to use ripoffs.
The game of eyes is what art historians confirmed the fact to be found a picture of La Tour here, because the similarity with his pictures for cheating with cards is unmistakable. The gaze of the young man is under the spell of the old gypsy woman, she must see to it that he remains distracted. The eyes of young girls going back and forth, one looks at the young man, the second from the left turn on their light-skinned accomplice. Make sure that their coup runs smoothly. The apparent tranquility of the upper image area is in contrast to the concentrated activity at the bottom and the specular is in the eyes of the thief inner tension. You want and must not be caught, because pickpocketing committed by the lawless group asked the gypsy was punished by public flogging then without trial.