‘Fortune Teller with Soldiers’ is a painting by Valentin de Boulogne

Background

“Fortune Teller with Soldiers” is considered one of Valentin de Boulogne’s greatest pieces of work, one that used the psychology, interplay among characters, and involves the viewer in the painting.

Explanation

Introduction

The first thing anyone can say about the painting is that it can be read either starting on the left or right hand side and be able to tell the story.

First Viewing

If

starting from the viewer’s right, when viewing the painting and what it appears to be depicting, the first thing to take note of location of hands and secondly the eyes. At the table, a young soldier is mesmerized by the fortune teller who is reading his palm. He, two of his comrades, and the man pouring the wine are visually hanging on her every word. Valentin has placed one soldier with his back to us, right at the picture’s surface, this encourages the viewer to want to peer around him and see for ourselves what is going on. Now go the viewer’s left side, and it is revealed that fortune telling is not the only con game going on. To the left of the gypsy a figure is cloaked in the shadows looking out at us, and he raises a finger to his lips, as if to shush us.

Its meaning is perfectly clear when you look for his other hand and see that he is in the process of stealing the fortune teller’s purse from her pocket. Only he is not the only other thief in this picture, in the lower half of the painting, a small child is seen returning the favor by picking his pockets. The visual lesson being taught in the painting is one of many, while one person’s fortune is told, another’s is being stolen; and one thief falls victim to another.

Second Viewing

Now returning to the viewer’s right side of the painting and all that wondering why the lone soldier is staring out at us, it is a knowing stare. Perhaps he is thinking that this is what life is like. Or maybe the figure who sits with his back to us should look over his shoulder to see what we are up to. Or maybe we all should look over our own shoulders from time to time. This psychological painting with the interplay among the characters, has now involved us.