These paintings date from La Tour’s earliest period when he executed powerful vernacular images of destitute musicians, tattered beggars, and old men. Old Man and Old Woman (75.2.10), figures probably drawn from life, remain as enigmatic as their unusual costumes, particularly the woman’s embroidered silk apron. Are they peasants, townspeople, or stock characters from the popular theater of Northern Europe–Alison, the domineering wife, and Père Dindon, the docile husband? If they are engaged in a bitter verbal exchange, they are presented without sentiment or elaboration. Skillfully combining a highly refined use of color with a strong chiaroscuro technique, La Tour has created here monumental, austere images of humble reality.

-Adapted from a text by Marion C. Stewart, Masterworks of European Painting in the California Palace of the Legion of Honor (1999)