Andre Malraux, writing in The Voices of Silence, observed that "every great painter has his secret, that is to say, the means of expression by which his genius usually avails itself." In the paintings of Georges de La Tour, Mairaux explained, subtle modulations of red functioned as the characteristic instrument of the painter's attenuated yet evocative colorism. More generally, Malraux was trying to suggest that the old masters, as a rule, grounded their accomplishment in technical ...