The Fortune Teller (de la Tour)

An elegant young dupe has his palm read by a wizened old crone while, all around him, her young accomplices quietly relieve him of his purse and slide a medal from his neck. Georges de la Tour stages the swindle in clear daylight rather than his usual candlelight, the action carried by sidelong glances and stealthy hands. The theme of the gullible youth fleeced by fortune-tellers runs back to Caravaggio, whose own version is also in this collection. Now in the Metropolitan Museum, it is a sly, richly costumed comedy of trust and theft.