A compact edition of a major monograph that offers insights into the life and work of the seventeenth-century master Georges de La Tour. Georges de La Tour ranks with Vermeer and the Le Nain brothers among those seventeenth-century painters whose unmistakable talent is matched only by their aura of mystery. This groundbreaking monograph uses original correspondence and archival documents to reconstruct the master’s life and practices. Influenced by Caravaggio, La Tour created a form of realism that displays rare poetic beauty. The attention to detail, from the dirt under a saint’s fingernails to the wavering flame of a girl’s candle, is highlighted in full-page close-ups, while the paintings are contextualized by color reproductions of works that influenced, and were influenced by, La Tour. Available for the first time in a compact edition, complete with an illustrated catalogue, bibliography, and key documentary sources, this remains the essential reference work on a fascinating artist.