Time is running out. The exhibition, Georges de la Tour is about to end on February 22, 2026 — it has been extended, it is so popular. I wanted to share the visit with my sister. I sent her instructions how to listen and follow most of the exhibition from afar. The Musée Jacquemart-André makes it easy to listen from afar. Download their app and you have it for the duration of the exhibition. (Click on the photos below to see them larger.)
The next time you are in Paris, use the audio guide app for the current exhibition, a museum visit, a musical tour of the museum and a museum visit for children. The commentary is available in English and French. In addition to the verbal guide, there is a written description, a tab takes you to the actual art piece. For all events, visit the Musée Jacquemart-André events page.
If you are reading this after the Georges de la Tour exhibition, I have uploaded the English brochure and some photos on a separate page. If you read this before the next exhibition, you may still have time to follow the app with the corresponding numbers of the app guide and the photos.
The museum application
The phone/tablet app is available for exhibitions or you do not take the museum’s audio guide. You can use your own headphones or earbuds with the cable. The advantage with using the museum app, the exhibit commentary stays on your phone until the next exhibition or the museum takes it off the app. Not every work of art is on the app, the museum provides excellent highlights.
You can buy tickets with the app and find practical information for location, transportation, Le Nélie, restaurant and tea salon, a graph with daily attendance averages, etc.
Georges de la Tour Exhibition – “Chiaroscuro: a unique use of light”
The exhibition was different than what I expected. I recognised the influence of Amerighi da Caravaggio but with less detail on average. Georges de la Tour is more restrained than dramatic. The use of candle light, however, was captivating.
The audio guide helped explain in detail much that I would have missed, such as the wrinkles on the forehead of Saint Jerome. The images of the old man and the old woman were most likely actors. Their clothing most likely staged.
One of my favorites was the Tears of Saint Peter (Saint Pierre repentant, dit Les Larmes de Saint Pierre-1645). He looks very old and fragile with tears in his eyes. I see a man wearing sandals and sitting staring into the distance. The rooster on the table is a reminder of the prophesy that Peter would deny three times that he knew Jesus.
This exhibit is the first retrospective since the 1997 Grand Palais exhibition. This exhibition covers a gamut of de la Tour’s styles.
He concentrates on night scenes by half-hidden candlelight, life-size figures, bust-length depictions, human presence, apostles, a blind musician and actors. Presented are 30 of the 40 paintings of Georges de la Tour and some of his contemporaries. His paintings were meant for wealthy homes. In 1638, a fire started by French troops during the Thirty Years’ War destroyed his home, his studio, and some of his works.
Download the app if you cannot be in Paris before February 22, 2026. There will be two lines, with timed tickets and without a ticket. I showed up with a ticket for a timed entry at 10:15. The guard let me in and I did not have to stand in line with the other timed entries. They appear to be strict about the timed entry.