Fortune-Teller with Soldiers
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.Perhaps the culminating work of Valentin’s early career, this picture of fortune-telling, deception, stealing, and drinking astonishes for its combination of naturalistic description, the orchestration of varied expressions and actions, and theatricality. Life itself is encapsulated by the innocent-seeming child stealing from the cloaked man who steals from the gypsy who tells the fortune of a young, enamored soldier. The seated figure in the foreground links the viewer’s space with that of the picture.
Artwork Details
- Title: Fortune-Teller with Soldiers
- Artist: Valentin de Boulogne (French, Coulommiers-en-Brie 1591–1632 Rome)
- Date: ca. 1618–20
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 58 7/8 × 93 7/8 in. (149.5 × 238.5 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Toledo Museum of Art, Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
- Curatorial Department: European Paintings