Following Georges de La Tour's Light Through Paris: From Royal Chambers to Room 912
By Georges de La Tour - The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202.https://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/436839, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=153615
After yesterday's post about the Jacquemart-André exhibition, several of you asked: what if we can't get tickets? Or what if we're coming after January? Where else can we find La Tour in Paris?
Here's the answer that surprised me: Georges de La Tour didn't just visit Paris. He lived here for three years, from 1639 to 1642, in actual apartments at the Louvre Palace. Not near the Louvre.
IN the Louvre. As "peintre ordinaire du roi" to Louis XIII.
This baker's son from Lorraine, whose workshop had been torched by French troops just a year earlier, was suddenly living where kings lived, painting for Cardinal Richelieu. The man who painted blind hurdy-gurdy players and peasant mothers was walking the same corridors as royalty. King Louis XIII owned several La Tours, including a Saint Sebastian that he reportedly loved so much he had all other paintings removed from his chamber, leaving only that one.
Room 912: Your La Tour Destination
Today, if you want to see La Tour in Paris outside the current exhibition, you go to one place: Room 912 in the Louvre's Sully Wing. All five of the museum's La Tours hang together there, representing about 12.5% of his entire authenticated output.
These aren't loans or temporary arrangements. These paintings have been here, some for nearly a century. L'Adoration des bergers entered the collection in 1926. Le Tricheur à l'as de carreau was discovered that same year and immediately recognized as a masterpiece. Saint Joseph charpentier from around 1645 reveals, through X-rays, another face painted beneath the Child's face. La Tour literally painting over his own work, revising, perfecting.
Standing in Room 912, you're in the building where La Tour actually worked, albeit completely transformed. Those royal apartments where he lived are long gone, but something remains. Call it institutional memory, the accumulated weight of all the art that's passed through these walls.
After the Louvre: Where to Decompress
You can't properly absorb La Tour on an empty stomach. Near the Louvre, here are the spots worth knowing:
Le Fumoir (6 Rue de l'Amiral de Coligny, 75001) sits right across from the Louvre with leather chairs and book-lined walls where you can sit with a glass of wine and process what you've seen. Their afternoon tea service works perfectly for that post-museum energy crash.
Le Soufflé (36 Rue du Mont Thabor, 75001) offers both savory and sweet soufflés. Sometimes after contemplating spiritual intensity you need something earthly and grounding.
For simpler fare, Cibus (5 Rue Molière, 75001) serves Italian provisions with no fuss. Sit at the counter and watch them work. There's something about watching food being prepared after all that concentrated looking at paintings.
Gardens for Processing
After eating, you need to walk. The Tuileries are obvious, but go specifically to the area near the Orangerie where Rodin's sculptures create their own play of light and shadow. Or escape to the Jardin du Palais Royal (enter at Place Colette). Those covered arcades create the kind of controlled light conditions La Tour achieved with his single candles.
The Disappeared Paris
What we can't visit: the Palais Cardinal (now Palais Royal) where Richelieu displayed his La Tours. The royal chambers where Louis XIII contemplated that Saint Sebastian alone. The workshops and homes of the other artists La Tour would have known during his Paris years. The city he knew was wooden, candlelit, smaller. We chase shadows of shadows.
But that's exactly the point. La Tour painted light that existed for a moment, a candle flame that burned out 400 years ago, and made it permanent. We can stand in Room 912 and see the same light he captured, even if everything else about Paris has transformed.
By Georges de La Tour - The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202.http://www.prestonparkmuseum.co.uk/the-hall-and-its-treasures/themes/collectors-and-collecting/georges-de-la-tour/the-discovery-of-a-masterpiece/de-la-tour/ (cropped from) image, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=153650
Making This Visit Work
If you're doing the La Tour trail through Paris, here's the rhythm that works:
Start at the Jacquemart-André exhibition if you can get tickets (through January 25, 2026). Then, on a different day, because you need time between encounters, visit Room 912 at the Louvre. Don't try to see everything else. Just La Tour, maybe the other French 17th-century rooms nearby if you're feeling strong.
Book lunch at one of those restaurants before you go. Museums make you hungry in specific ways, and knowing you have good food waiting helps you stay present with the art.
Give yourself at least an hour in one of those gardens after. This isn't efficiency tourism. It's about choosing depth over breadth.
Tomorrow I'll share the third part of this La Tour journey: his obsession with Saint Peter and where to find those saints throughout Paris's churches. Because once you start seeing his patterns, you can't stop following them.
Quick Reference:
Louvre Room 912
Sully Wing, Level 2
Daily except Tuesday, 9am-6pm (until 9:45pm Fridays)
Book timed tickets online: louvre.fr
Nearby Restaurants:
Le Fumoir: 6 Rue de l'Amiral de Coligny, 75001
Le Soufflé: 36 Rue du Mont Thabor, 75001
Cibus: 5 Rue Molière, 75001
Gardens:
Tuileries near Orangerie
Jardin du Palais Royal (enter Place Colette)
