Philip the Apostle

Philip the Apostle from 1637 by La Tour is part of his series of apostle paintings. The individual apostle portraits demonstrate La Tour's early style, characterized by powerful naturalistic observation under strong, even lighting. La Tour's nocturnal candlelit scenes—figures silhouetted against warm, concentrated light—are among the most poetic and meditative works of the seventeenth century, his Caravagesque sources transformed by the stillness and mystery of his Lorraine context.

The apostle is rendered with robust naturalism and strong directional light, the face and hands modeled with La Tour's precise observation and simplified geometric forms.