Chasing La Tour's Saint Peter Obsession Through Paris
Par Georges de La Tour — www.culture.gouv.fr : Home : Info : Pic, Domaine public, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19380066
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Walking through the Jacquemart-André exhibition, I counted eight paintings of Saint Peter. Eight, in just five rooms. When curators assemble a show like this, with loans from museums worldwide that take years to negotiate, every single piece is deliberately chosen. So why dedicate so much precious space to variations on Peter? The tears, the denial, the repentance, always that moment of recognition and failure.
This wasn't just fulfilling commissions. La Tour painted Saint Peter at least five times that we know of, including The Tears of Saint Peter from 1645 and The Denial of Saint Peter from 1650, just two years before his death. A baker's son who became the king's painter, who lost everything in a fire and rebuilt, clearly knew something about denial and redemption.
So where in Paris can we trace this obsession? Not through La Tour's actual paintings of Peter, which are scattered globally, but through the saint himself in the churches that bear his name.
Saint-Pierre de Montmartre Church, as it stood between 1794 and 1844. Par Auguste Jacques Régnier — Sotheby's, Domaine public, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19501674
Saint-Pierre de Montmartre: The Essential Visit
If you're going to connect with Peter in Paris, start at Saint-Pierre de Montmartre Church (2 Rue du Mont-Cenis, 18th). Not because it's convenient, but because it's one of the oldest churches in Paris, founded between 1133 and 1147. While tourists crowd Sacré-Cœur, this church sits quietly nearby, largely overlooked.
Built on a Roman temple to Mars, incorporating 6th-century Merovingian capitals, this is where Ignatius of Loyola and six companions took their vows in 1534, founding the Jesuit order. The layers of history are visible in the actual stones.
What connects this to La Tour is the quality of light. Max Ingrand's 1953 stained glass windows create an intimate glow, not unlike La Tour's candlelight. It's the kind of light that invites contemplation rather than spectacle.
The church is open daily 9am-7pm, free admission. Go on Friday at 3pm for the English guided tour if you want the full history, or simply sit in the quiet and understand why La Tour might have been drawn to spaces like this.
After the Church: Montmartre Essentials
You'll need food after that kind of contemplation. Skip the tourist traps near Sacré-Cœur and try:
La Boîte aux Lettres (108 Rue Lepic, 75018) - A proper bistro that hasn't changed in decades. Their duck confit brings you back to earth.
Café de Luce (30 Rue Gabrielle, 75018) - Not fancy, just good coffee and a zinc bar where you can stand and process what you've seen.
If you need to walk (and you will), find Villa Léandre between Avenue Junot and Rue Lepic. This hidden street of Art Nouveau houses rewards the same kind of close looking La Tour's paintings demand.
Cardinal Verdier lays the foundation stone of the Saint-Pierre-de-Chaillot church (1933). Par Agence de presse Mondial Photo-Presse — Bibliothèque nationale de France, Domaine public, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19161528
The Modern Contrast: Saint-Pierre de Chaillot Church
For complete contrast, visit Saint-Pierre de Chaillot (31 Avenue Marceau, 16th). Completed in 1938, this Art Deco church couldn't be more different from Montmartre. The 65-meter bell tower dominates the skyline, the interior holds over 2,000 people.
Yet the Mauméjean brothers' stained glass creates a deliberately dark, mystical atmosphere. This is where the future Pope John XXIII prayed when he was papal nuncio to France in the 1940s. The afternoon light through those dense windows creates something surprisingly close to La Tour's shadows.
Open daily 7:30am-7pm. Go late afternoon when the light is most dramatic.
You can visit this painting for free in Paris! Peter healing the lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the Second Temple of Jerusalem in the company of Saint John the Evangelist , Louis-Vincent-Léon Pallière (1819), Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin church in Paris . Par Octave 444 — Travail personnel, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=89617831
Why This Saint, Why This Obsession
La Tour didn't paint Peter once and move on. He returned to that moment of failure and recognition repeatedly, just as Peter himself returned to Christ after his denial. For La Tour, who lived through war, who saw his workshop burn, who navigated from provincial Lorraine to the king's chambers, Peter's story of failure and redemption must have resonated personally.
These Paris churches dedicated to Peter continue that repetition. Daily masses, same prayers, same rituals, but never quite the same. The light shifts. The congregation changes. The moment of recognition comes differently each time.
Making This Pilgrimage Work
If you're following the complete La Tour trail through Paris:
Day 1: Jacquemart-André exhibition (through January 25, 2026) to see those eight Peters together
Day 2: Room 912 at the Louvre to see La Tour in the palace where he lived
Day 3: Choose your Saint Peter church based on what you need: medieval intimacy at Montmartre or Art Deco ambition at Chaillot
Don't rush between these experiences. La Tour's genius was in slowness, in how light gradually reveals truth. Give yourself time between each encounter to let the impressions settle.
The exhibition runs through January 25, 2026. But La Tour's obsession with light and shadow, failure and redemption, continues in these Paris spaces long after the paintings travel back to their home museums. Sometimes the most powerful art experiences come from following an artist's obsessions through a city, seeing what they saw, walking where they walked, understanding not just what they painted but why they couldn't stop painting it.
Essential Information:
Churches:
Saint-Pierre de Montmartre: 2 Rue du Mont-Cenis, 75018 (Daily 9am-7pm, free)
Saint-Pierre de Chaillot: 31 Avenue Marceau, 75016 (Daily 7:30am-7pm)
Near Montmartre:
La Boîte aux Lettres: 108 Rue Lepic, 75018
Café de Luce: 30 Rue Gabrielle, 75018
Hidden street: Villa Léandre (between Avenue Junot and Rue Lepic)
