Magdalen with the Smoking Flame

Magdalen with the Smoking Flame from around 1640 at LACMA is among La Tour's most powerful nocturnal compositions. The penitent Magdalene contemplating a candle flame embodies the Counter-Reformation theme of conversion and inner spiritual illumination that dominated La Tour's mature work. 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 single flame illuminates the saint's face and skull with La Tour's signature reduction to essential geometric forms, the surrounding darkness creating an atmosphere of profound contemplative stillness.