Jean-Baptiste Le Prince, 'The Necromancer', probably 1775

An old man in an exotic costume is reading a young lady’s palm. She is accompanied by a young man in a turban who leans towards her and rests his hand on her shoulder, but the nature of their relationship is unclear.

The objects that surround the old man tell us that he is a magician: an alembic (a still to make alcohol), an incense burner, several reference books and a magic wand. His rich brocade gown, the coins on the table and the upholstered chair indicate that he is successful. But perhaps the appearance of wealth is only to make the two visitors trust him. The young pair look as if they are entirely convinced by the magician’s words.

The title ‘The Necromancer’ is a translation of that given to the work, or a version of it, when it was exhibited at the 1775 Paris Salon. In the 1762 edition of the Dictionnaire de l’Académie françoise a necromancer is defined as either someone who evokes the spirits of the dead in order to predict the future, or simply a magician. However, the elderly man here is not practising necromancy but chiromancy – the occult art of reading the future from the palm of the hand. Practising chiromancy was a criminal offence punishable by exile during Le Prince’s time. It was not illegal to consult a chiromancer, those who did so were regarded more to be pitied than blamed.

Le Prince went to Russia in 1757, and following his return to Paris in 1764 he exhibited numerous pictures of the people and places of Russia. Some have assumed this painting to be among his Russian subjects, although this is unlikely as Russia is not included in the title, and the costumes appear to be exotically oriental rather than specifically Russian. The woman’s dress with its striped underskirt resembles contemporary French fashion, but her long coat and sash are Turkish elements. The young man’s tall cap and turban drapery are shown in Le Prince’s print The Turkish Officer (Officier Turc). The coat worn by the old man is Chinese, as are his shoes and trousers. At his death, Le Prince owned a number of items of Chinese, Turkish and Russian clothing, and the costumes in the painting may be based on these. Le Prince’s painting may have been a conscious response in reverse to two earlier compositions: Caspar Netscher’s The Fortune Teller, of about 1666–70, which was then in the Orléans collection; and his own painting of 1773, The Physician (Le Médecin Clairvoyant), now in Baltimore Museum of Art.

There are three known virtually identical versions of this picture. Ours is signed ‘L Prince’. The version in the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg is signed lower right ‘Le Prince’ and may have been the version exhibited in 1775 at the Paris Salon, meaning it is probably the original. There is another unsigned version in the Graham Collection, Texas. The painting was also etched and engraved by Isidor Stanislas Helman in 1785. Unusually, the engraving is the same way round as the painting – normally engravings reproduce the painting in reverse.