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
Valentin de Boulogne French
Not on view
One of Valentin’s most famous pictures, Fortune-Teller brings together the expected cast of characters around the themes of thievery, love, and music—in short, the deceptions of life. The Anatolian carpet and harp suggest a more patrician setting than usual. The depiction of the hands plucking the harp in dappled light is a tour-de-force. Not surprisingly, by 1683 the picture was displayed in the king’s chamber at Versailles.