Christ in the Carpenter’s Shop is my favorite piece of Baroque visual art presented in this section. It was imagined and created in Musée du Louvre, Paris, by Georges de la Tour in 1645 and is among the most famous of his works. Georges de la Tour was a famous French painter of the Baroque era.
When I look at the painting I see a few interesting things. The painting is classified as a simple genre scene and not a strict religious piece because of the lack of symbolism. There is no background in this scene and the only light in the picture, comes from the boy’s candle. I love the kindness in the eyes of the father and the delight in the eyes of the boy. The father has given the boy purpose and worth. It is a picture of the the training up of a boy into a man. Though the scene is ordinary, it speaks of the future. It can be a picture of every ordinary family. It also is a picture of Joseph and Jesus and God the father to his creation. That is what I see.
The realism in the painting is quite obvious. When we discuss realism in the arts, we are discussing how well the piece depicts ordinary life and every day routine. In this photo the carpenter is teaching his son his trade. His son helps him and they work together. REALISM. The religious overtone of the painting is that the son is the Christ child.
Georges de la Tour was heavily influenced and supported by royalty. He started a good living in Luneville in the Duchy of Lorraine. He was the official court painter to Louis XIV. Tour had a style of realism and tenebrism together. Tour was a young man during the early Italian Baroque and quickly became famous. King Louis XIII, Henry II of Lorraine, and the Duke de La Ferte were among the royal who collected Georges de la Tour’s work. George held the “personal esteem of the Governor of Lorraine, the Marechal de la Ferte, for whom he painted a Nativity, a St Alexis, a St Sebastian, and a Denial of St Peter. His works fetched high prices (600-700 francs or more).”
Source: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/old-masters/georges-la-tour.htm