Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Fortune-Teller with Soldiers
Valentin de Boulogne French
Not on view
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.
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